Beat It
by anne black
Summary: The rivalry between the Appleby Arrows and the Wimbourne Wasps has been well known for centuries. But when Roxanne Weasley catches the attention of the Wasps Beater, who seems quite intent on getting to know her, will she be able to stop the on-pitch tension from taking over her personal life?
1. A Wasps Attention

"I will never understand why the federation makes this draw meeting mandatory," Roxanne Weasley muttered over a glass of red wine. She scanned the room, eyes falling over the loud crowd of Witches and Wizards that had gathered in the very large hall. "There's always trouble."

"I know what you mean," Violet Addams stated back, taking a sip of her own glass of wine. Roxanne turned to look at her friend as she spoke, admiring the way that Violet's long, straightened black hair fell down her back effortlessly. "They complain about the rivalry between the teams, yet force us to all be in the same room to tell us what teams we'll be playing. They could always just send word to our coaches and they'll let us know. It'll save a lot of money and a few trips to St. Mungo's."

"It's got to be about the publicity this brings the club. There are so many reporters here trying to dig up whatever dirt they can before the matches begin." Roxanne placed her glass down on the table.

Roxanne looked down at her dress, and smoothed down a small crease that had appeared in the dark blue silk. Roxanne did love any excuse to dress up, and with Quidditch, any situation that required her to dress up like a girl was a bonus. There weren't many chances as a professional Quidditch player to dress up, unless you were going to a promotional event, or coming to the draw meeting, like today.

Roxanne had played the position of Beater for the Appleby Arrows since she was eighteen, having spent two years on the reserve team before making her big break three years ago, when the old Beater had retired. It was where she met her friend Violet, who had been a Seeker for even longer than Roxanne had been on the team, being three years older than Roxanne; she had a lot more experience on the pitch.

"These meetings are always the same though; I wonder who's going to start trouble first? Shall we bet on the first punch being thrown before the draw even begins?" Violet mused, Ruby lips pursed as she gazed around the room.

Roxanne gave a laugh at her friends comment, knowing that it wouldn't be long until something happened. The free bar was bound to cause some sort of problem, especially with the various rivalries between them all. The teams were quite rowdy when drunk, some more so then others. The Ballycastle Bats were the worst drunks out of all of the teams, but they always seemed like they were enjoying themselves, when they weren't dancing on the tables.

The draw meeting was one of the biggest parties that the Quidditch federation hosted. It wasn't exactly mandatory for them to attend, that was just what the coaches told the teams, but the club would frown upon the people that didn't turn up. Moreover, the promise of a free bar helped bring them all in. No one could resist anything free.

"Shall we go and find a seat?" Roxanne asked her friend, who took a bigger sip of her drink before nodding. They both moved away from the bar and made their way slowly through the big group of people, giving smiles at anyone that they recognised and were friendly with.

"Let's not go over near the back, that's where the Wimbourne Wasps are sitting," Violet told Roxanne as she hitched up the side of her long red dress, so that it wouldn't snag on the floor as she walked.

They were forbidden from going near the Wimbourne Wasps through the entire meeting, in fact their entire team did. Roxanne's team the Appleby Arrows were fierce rivals of the Wimbourne Wasps, and had been for as long as anyone could remember. In the few years that Roxanne had played Quidditch professionally, she had been told to not socialise with the other team. The bad publicity, risk of harm and the lawsuits that resulted from the two teams clashing, meant that it wasn't worth even attempting to have a conversation with them. Clashing on the pitch, however, was a different subject entirely; it wasn't a true match between the two until at least twenty fouls had been committed, and three players were forced to see a Healer.

"We should probably warn someone that Jerome is close to treading on enemy territory," Violet muttered to Roxanne as they found a seat back at the Appleby Arrows table. It was empty as their other teammates were socialising with the players from the other teams, leaving them to have their conversation alone. Roxanne looked over at where Jerome was standing, she saw that he was standing with his back to the Wimbourne Wasps table and was talking to Cody McIntyre, a Chaser for the Montrose Magpies. A few players from the Wimbourne Wasps were watching Jerome carefully, distasteful looks on their faces.

Roxanne knew that Jerome could handle himself if one of them tried to start and argument or a fight with him, as a Beater he had enough upper arm strength to be able to defend himself, probably winning.

"He'll be fine; he knows not to go over there. He's probably trying to antagonise them into one of them throwing the first punch and getting either a fine or a ban," Roxanne told her, she finished the last of her wine and placed the empty glass on the table.

"Want me to go and get more drinks?" Roxanne asked Violet, who gave a nod and a smile, before turning to wave at Trudy Abston, the Chaser of the Holyhead Harpies.

Roxanne left the table and made her way through the crowd and over to the bar, greeting a few players that she passed along the way.

"I wondered when I would be seeing your beautiful face, Weasley."

Roxanne turned to the source of the voice, and saw Jason Turner a Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps. He was also the number one Beater in England and one of the best players the country had seen.

There wasn't a week that went passed where Jason wasn't mentioned at least half a dozen times in the Daily Prophet, mentioning his achievements both on and off the pitch. Roxanne didn't like to admit to it, but she had a major crush on him when he was first signed up to the Wimbourne Wasps. Posters adorned her walls of the tall beater, and she couldn't help but let her eyes roam over his big build, which was purely muscle. He worked out a lot and that much was evident by the size of his arms alone. Roxanne resisted the urge to swoon, as she looked up into his face. Jason's dark hair was slicked back and his strong jaw was covered in stubble, and Roxanne needed to get herself another drink otherwise she was going to do something stupid, like engage Jason in conversation.

"Shouldn't you be with your team?" Roxanne asked him sternly, as she raised a hand up to smooth down her normally curly hair, she had used a potion to make it sleek enough to put up in an elegant hairstyle. She wasn't really up to facing the trouble she would be in with her coach when he found out that she was talking to Turner.

"Do you think that I'll be sitting with them when there's an attractive woman at the bar?" Jason asked with a smirk. Roxanne looked behind her to see if there was someone else standing next to her that he meant. She saw that she was the only woman standing at the bar at that moment. She turned to look back at Jason and gave a small frown at him.

"I thought that you would have brought along one of those leggy blondes that you're always photographed with. You know, those ones with low self-respect and little to no dignity or clothes. The one's that you ditch after a few days like they're yesterday's fashion," Roxanne said smiling at him sweetly.

Jason gave a laugh as he brought his hand up to his chest, a pained expression on his face. "The lady has bite," He said, biting his lip slightly as he looked Roxanne up and down, before he thanked the barman for his Firewhiskey, neat and on the rocks. He took a sip of his drink, before placing it back on the bar, licking his lips as he looked back at Roxanne, who felt satisfaction at her comment. "Are you jealous, Miss Weasley?"

"Hardly," Roxanne told him honestly. "I have higher standards than you."

"One day you'll want me," Jason told her knowingly.

"Don't hold your breath for that to be happening any time soon," Roxanne said shaking her head at him.

"So, it's going to be happening eventually?" Jason's green eyes lit up at those words as he licked his lips. It took Roxanne a lot of effort to not follow the movement with her eyes.

"In your wildest dreams, maybe?" Roxanne told him as she picked up the glasses the barman had placed in front of her.

"I'll make an honest woman of you one day, Miss Weasley," Jason said. "Mrs. Roxanne Turner has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"That is never going to happen," Roxanne told him, walking away from the bar as she shook her head, trying to stop the smirk that was crossing her lips.

"I love watching you walk away from me, Mrs. Turner. I must say that I adore how that dress looks on you. Although, I'll admit that it'll look even better on my bedroom floor."

Roxanne turned to glance back at Jason, who was grinning madly; a few people around them were chuckling at Jason's cheesy chat up line.

"That has got to be the worst line I have ever heard, Turner," Roxanne stated. "Even for you."

Roxanne turned back around and walked away from him again, not letting herself glance behind her at him.

She took a seat at her teams' table and saw that most of them had come back. Roxanne figured that the draw must have been taking place soon if everyone was beginning to take their seats.

"What took you so long?" Violet asked, after thanking Roxanne when she was handed the drink. "Was the bar crowded?"

"Yeah, with a large ego," Roxanne stated, looking up and seeing that Jason was making his way over to where his fellow Wasps were sitting. He gave a wink to Roxanne as he passed, which she chose to ignore. Violet turned to look at Jason before turning to Roxanne with her mouth open slightly in shock.

"Roxanne, do not even think about going there," Violet warned Roxanne. Roxanne swallowed her mouthful of wine as she shook her head. "Even if Turner is a big hunk of muscley man meat."

Roxanne had to stop herself choking mid swallow and stared wide-eyed at Violet, who was giggling. Roxanne wondered if she should cut her friends alcohol supply off.

"No way in hell am I going to go there. He was just flirting with me at the bar, probably trying to get inside information about our plays this year. He's not interested in me like that, and I'm not interested in him at all." Roxanne shook her head again, resisting the urge to glance back at the bar and see if Jason was there.

"Just make sure that you keep it that way. With a rivalry as big as our teams, there's no way any kind of relationship between the two is going to be anything but a mistake," Violet told her.

Roxanne gave Violet a nod of agreement before slouching slightly in her chair as she looked up at the stage where the announcer would be standing. He had called for the rest of the teams to take their seats so that they could begin to read out the results of the draw.

Once everyone had been seated, the long process of picking the teams played out. Roxanne found herself a few times looking over at the Wimbourne Wasps table, she could just about manage to see Jason from where she was sitting if people didn't move in her way. She didn't understand why she was looking for him, he was her rival, and she wanted nothing more than to beat him during the game. Possibly one day Roxanne would be stealing the crown of best Beater in England from the top of his head, which would wipe the smug smirk off his face.

A couple of times she managed to catch Jason's eyes, realising that he was watching her carefully, and Roxanne felt like she couldn't pull herself away from his gaze as though trapped in some sort of a spell. Jason raised his eyebrows at her, before giving her a wink and licking his lips slowly, causing her to begin fuming slightly. Roxanne tore her eyes away from him and looked down as her hand found the bracelet she was wearing, pushing it around her wrist. The silver and crystals shining brightly against her darker skin, it was a gift from her parents for making it onto the team and she wore it for all special occasions - it was making a brilliant distraction.

"The fifth game of the season will be between Appleby Arrows and Caerphilly Catapults." There were claps around Roxanne as she realised what the announcer had said.

Roxanne was thankful that her first match would be against them, knowing that she didn't want her team's first match to be against the Wimbourne Wasps. She didn't much fancy being banned for a match for throwing a Beater's bat at Jason at the beginning of the season. She wasn't sure how much more of his flirting she was going to be able to tolerate, especially if it was during a game.

There were more claps around her as more games were announced, as well as the dates of the other games. It turned out that Roxanne's team wouldn't be facing Jason's for around two months at the least, depending on the outcome of the other games. Roxanne was extremely thankful for this; she didn't much like the idea of Jason seeming to have set his sights on her. If his reputation in the papers was anything to go by, she would be nothing more than a cheap fling, and she didn't want to be another notch in his bedpost.

The rest of the matches were drawn and the teams were allowed to continue drinking again. Roxanne watched as Jason stood up from his chair and seemed to boldly begin making his way over to where Roxanne was sitting.

"Oh no, Turner is making his way over here," Roxanne hissed at Violet, who looked up quickly and searched for Jason.

"I think we should go over to the bar," Violet stated, grabbing for Roxanne's hand and pulling her up and through the crowds that had begun forming again. "If I'm going to have to sit through Turner chatting you up, I want to be a lot drunker than I am now."

"Let's hope that Turner loses interest soon," Roxanne muttered to Violet as they walked away. "I'd hate to have to destroy him both on and off the pitch."

Violet gave a laugh as they made their way over to the bar, sliding into a vacated seat as Roxanne took the other.

"Maybe you should enjoy the attention; he is very nice to look at, even if he is a Wasp," Violet muttered, looking into the crowd for a sign of Jason Turner, who was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm not denying that he's not nice to look at," Roxanne admitted to her quietly. "I'm just saying that I'm not interested. Plus, you told me to not even go there if I remember rightly?"

"You shouldn't go near him, but that doesn't mean we can't look at him. There are some fine men playing Quidditch at the moment, we are some very lucky girls."

Roxanne gave a laugh as she picked up her new glass full of wine and took a mouthful, feeling the effects of the alcohol she had consumed that night beginning to take effect.

"That we are," Roxanne said with a smile. Violet and Roxanne both clinked their glasses together before erupting into a fit of giggles. "Now, shall we get the rest of our team over and enjoy the benefits of the free bar by getting absolutely drunk?"

"I think that's a requirement of being at this meeting," Roxanne said with a laugh, knowing that practice the next day was going to be eventful to say the least.


	2. The Morning After

"Whose idea was it to drink so much last night?" Violet asked, before letting out a groan and bending over double.

Roxanne let out her own groan as she took a sip from the water bottle she was currently holding. She hadn't long taken a vial of pain relief potion, but, sadly it didn't seem to be working yet, she just hoped that it would kick in before she got onto her broom.

"I don't remember getting home last night. I'm so thankful that I woke up at home and not in Turners house." Roxanne muttered quietly, closing her eyes and running her free hand over her forehead in hopes that the movement would help ease her headache. Jason had tried chatting her up again last night, but she had managed to avoid him, or at least as much as she could remember doing so. Her memory of the night got a bit fuzzy at the end.

"Instead, you had to wake up and see mine and Shawn's beautiful faces," Violet said. Roxanne opened her eyes and looked down at Violet, who seemed to be trying not to move.

"I wasn't too happy at the fact that all three of us had fallen asleep on my bed," Roxanne told her friend. She had woken up that morning to find that Violet and Shawn had fallen asleep on her bed, in fact, she had woken to find Shawn's feet near to her face and Violet snoring next to the said feet.

"It's a small price to pay for Shawn being a gentleman and bringing us both to yours. I'm so glad that he didn't splinch himself or us whilst apparating."

"Are you alright down there?" Roxanne asked her friend who was still bent over double.

Violet shook her head slowly. "This seems to be the only position I can be in without feeling the need to throw up. I've also only just managed to get the grass to stay in focus."

They heard laughter from near them and Roxanne turned to glare at two of her teammates who were laughing at some kind of joke between them.

"How am I going to see the snitch today? I can barely make the world stop spinning." Violet moaned.

Roxanne took a deep breath and tried to stop her head from pounding. She wished for nothing more than to go home and crawl back into her bed. She was currently trying to resist lying on the floor and falling asleep. Violet seemed to be close to laying down herself, she was still hunched over, her hands on her knees as she took deep breaths.

"How are you all feeling after last night?" Their coach called to them, Roxanne could see that he had a smile on his face as he looked at them all. Most of her other teammates seemed to be in the same position as her and Violet, she noted that a few seemed perfectly fine and were laughing at the others. Roxanne knew that these would be the ones she would make a beeline for when she was hitting bludgers.

There were a few grumbles in response to their coach, Gerald Osborne, Roxanne could see their Captain Thomas Harrison standing next to him, looking pale and dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, at least he was in the same boat as the rest of them.

"I'm not sure if most of you remember, but our first match will be against the Caerphilly Catapults. Now, I know that we've won most of our games against them in the past, but they've recently promoted their Keeper reserve to the main Keeper. There's a rumour that he's been tipped to be a good contender for the England team, so, we need to make sure that our Chasers are giving their best on the pitch. We need to show him that the Appleby Arrows are not a team to mess around with."

"Try telling Jason Turner that," Roxanne heard Daryl Edwards mutter to Dillon Cazier, both of whom were reserve Chasers. "He tried enough to mess around with Roxie."

Roxanne turned to look at them with a frown, trying to ignore the pain still in her head. "Want to repeat that Daryl?" She hissed at him.

Daryl gave a smile at her and shrugged, he was one of the ones who didn't drink much the night before and Roxanne already hated him for that. "We all saw Jason trying to get you alone last night, maybe you can be his new shag of the week?"

Roxanne's lip curled in anger as she pointed at Daryl angrily and glared at him. "You're cruisin' for a bruisin', Daryl. One more word and you'll be getting a Bludger attack you on the pitch."

Daryl gave another laugh, but he didn't say anymore on the subject.

"Beside's, Turner can go to hell. There is no way that I'm being caught with a Wasp." Roxanne sneered at him.

"Which is good, Weasley," Gerald said, having heard the conversation between the two, in fact, everyone had heard the conversation between them. "We can't have our players distracted; besides, there's a ban on having our team near theirs unless it's a match. Weasley would be stupid to even go near him."

"I don't want to risk my career, and Turner getting another broken arm, if he comes near me again." Roxanne told them, finally feeling her headache begin to slowly stop throbbing.

"I want you all to begin running laps," there was a groan from the team at the coach's words, Gerald gave a sigh. "For today only, I want you to run as many laps as your sorry legs can carry you."

Violet finally stood up straight, she jogged forwards a few steps before she shook her head and ran off in the direction of the bushes beside the changing rooms. Roxanne screwed her face up in disgust as she began her laps with the others, jumping over Jerome Housley, who seemed to have already collapsed onto the grass. She knew that today was going to be eventful and very long. It was the first time she could admit wanting practice to be over as quickly as possible, she could tell that her teammates were thinking the exact same thing.

~~

Roxanne was feeling a lot more refreshed as she headed out of the changing rooms, pushing her long wet, dark hair behind her and hitching her backpack onto her shoulder. She waved goodbye to a few of her teammates as she walked to the exit point where it was safe to apparate away from. She had decided that the best thing for her to do today would be to go to her parent's house. She had been craving her mums macaroni and cheese since about halfway through the practice, which Roxanne had to admit was one of the worst practices she had been to. Half of the team spent most of the time either passed out or lying down on the floor, thankfully the coach had taken pity on them and sent them all home early.

She apparated as soon as she got to the safe spot and landed directly into her parent's front garden. She had to steady herself quickly to make sure she didn't fall face first into her mother's Rose bushes. She wouldn't want to make that mistake for the hundredth time.

"Why did I think that apparating would be a good idea?" Roxanne groaned, feeling a sickness fill her as she slowly walked to the front door of her parent's house, ducking under a sunflower that seemed to wilt down towards the pathway. She knocked on the red door and waited for someone to answer it.

"Oh hey, Roxie," her dad said with a smile, after he had opened the door and seen her. Roxanne gave a smile back as she was pulled into a hug, she moved away and walked into the house, throwing her bag down in the hallway and making her way towards the kitchen.

"Nice hat, dad," Roxanne said, chuckling as she turned back to look at her father. A giant white hat, that looked like a sombrero, was perched on top of his head. George gave a smile as he pulled his hat at a funny angle and over where his missing ear would be and made a silly face.

"I think that it makes me look respectable," he told her, before they both burst out laughing. "No, your mum is making me help her out in the garden and apparently she's tired of me getting sun burn on my face so told me to choose a hat. Of course I chose the biggest one I could find."

"Is mum in the garden?" Roxanne asked her father, who nodded in response to her. They both walked out of the back door which was situated in the kitchen and went off to find Roxanne's mother Angelina.

~~

Roxanne had sat herself down on the recliner chair and watched as her mother and father continued gardening around her. She didn't feel like moving and had already convinced her father to make her a drink and a sandwich. It wasn't the macaroni and cheese she had been craving, but it was still a delicious sandwich, that she was very thankful her dad had made for her.

She gave a sigh as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face and could feel herself wanting to take a nap.

"So, how was last night, Roxie?" George asked his daughter. The Daily Prophet had run an article that morning about the outcome of the draw and its own thoughts on the odds of certain teams winning their matches, Roxanne had yet to read it but the others during training had mentioned it.

"It was very good. Everyone loved my dress so I'm glad that we both went shopping together," Roxanne told them. Angelina gave her daughter a smile as she waved her wand at a few flowers, instantly trimming them. George was waving his wand at the large tree that was in the garden; it seemed that he was finally attempting to take it down with magic, although at a very slow speed.

"There was only one problem," Roxanne said, "Jason Turner didn't seem to want to leave me alone."

George turned around to look at Roxanne quickly, he seemed to have stiffened at Roxanne's words and a hard look crossed his face.

"Do you want me to have a word with this guy?" he asked Roxanne seriously. Angelina gave her husband a smile as she rested a hand on his arm to calm him down.

"Dad, it's fine, I can handle Turner. It won't be long before he gets the message and tries to find some other poor sap to date him." Roxanne told him, choosing not to mention Jason's comments about her being Mrs Turner. She didn't want to unnecessarily make her father more protective.

"George, Roxie is twenty three years old. She has her own flat, her own life, she's a very responsible adult and can handle herself. We can trust her to make her own decisions about this." Angelina told her husband.

"Jason won't come near me, unless he wants his arse kicked." Roxanne told her dad with a smile.

"You are definitely your mother's child." George said proudly as Angelina beamed next to her daughter.

"How about I cook us all some macaroni and cheese tonight?" Angelina told them both as she waved her wand at some more flowers, George going back to attacking the tree.

"I think that is the best decision you have made yet, mother." Roxanne grinned, wanting to get her thoughts away from Jason Turner. She knew that it was no use thinking about what he had said to her the night before. She knew that he would move on soon enough and be out of her hair.


	3. Do you want to put a bet on that?

Roxanne looked around the room before she entered quietly. Letting out a thankful sigh as she realised that the room had a cooling charm on it, she closed her eyes and let herself cool down.

The weather had been unpredictable for weeks, finally deciding to become hot and humid over the last few days. The Prophet had mentioned that it was the hottest July for years and was likely to continue its heat wave over the entire month. Roxanne would normally welcome the heat, but today she didn't want to be sweating her ass off whilst she watched the match against the Tutshill Tornados and Pride of Portree. It was the second match of the tournament, the first match took place yesterday, but as Roxanne was at training she was unable to make it.

She wasn't supposed to be in here, but as the box was currently under refurbishment and as a result, out of use to the families and friends of Quidditch players and sponsors, for whom they would normally be reserved for. In this case it was the families and friends of the Pride of Portree and the Tutshill Tornados.

She wasn't sure why she was sneaking around. She was allowed to go to other matches and watch the games as the federation and teams didn't really frown upon it, so long as you didn't cause any trouble. Although there was normally a ban on having certain teams watching others, but mainly due to the violence that could happen at these matches. Roxanne would have been sitting in one of the other boxes, but she had arrived late, having trouble finding her wand so that she could apparate up to Portree in Scotland. She had left her wand on her kitchen counter and it had taken her a lot longer than she cared to admit to, to find it. She had decided that after she had watched this match, that she would visit the Hogsmeade branch of her father's shop, deciding that as she was in Scotland already it wouldn't take that long to get there.

Roxanne didn't particularly want to make a scene because of her lateness, so chose to just find a quiet place to watch the match. She was thankful that she had stumbled across this empty box, although she would have to be careful what she touched or sat on, as well as making sure she wasn't seen at the front of the box, she didn't really want to be kicked out.

The match had already started when she had arrived and taken her seat. She watched as the players flew across the pitch, hearing the commentator calling out the names of a Chaser that had just scored a goal. It didn't take Roxanne long to find the Beaters on the field. She liked to watch other Beaters playing, hoping that she could get some tips on where she might be going wrong.

"Weasley, I was not expecting you to be here." She heard from behind her. Roxanne gave a groan as she realised that she had been caught in the box, before realising just who it was that had caught her. She turned around to see that Jason Turner was smiling at her and was walking towards where she had sat on one of the free chairs. She noticed that he was wearing a pair of dark blue shorts and a grey T-shirt, both of which showed off his broad and toned build, Roxanne tried not to stare at him as she looked back up at his eyes. Jason was smirking at her.

"I wasn't expecting you to be here either. Why are you here?" Roxanne asked, hoping that Jason didn't say anything about her checking him out before. She ran her hands over her pale blue summer dress, to smooth away nonexistent creases, as she tried to look away from him. But she couldn't help glancing back up at him.

"I've been here since the beginning. I just needed to take a quick stop in the gents." Jason stated, raising an arm and jerking his thumb to the door behind him.

Roxanne tried not to think about how nice his arms looked. It was obvious to an outsider that he would be a Beater, he had a big enough upper body build to be one. That and Roxanne knew that he liked to work out a lot, to improve his performance on the pitch and probably his ability to pull more girls. This thought was enough to break the spell that Jason seemed to have on her. She felt her nose screw up as Jason took a seat next to her and turned to grin down at her.

"I hope that you've washed your hands." She told him, not sure if personal hygiene was on the top of his list of things to care about.

"Of course, love." Jason told her with a wink.

"Why are you in here?" Roxanne asked again, "Why are you not sitting in one of the other boxes?"

"I could ask you the same question," he shot back at her. He was watching the game playing in front of them, slouching slightly in the chair next to her with his hands resting on his legs. Roxanne wasn't sure how she felt about how close he was sitting to her.

"I asked you first." Roxanne told him.

"It doesn't mean that I'm going to answer you."

Roxanne rolled her eyes as she looked back at the game playing in front of her, trying to focus on what was happening. But the smell of Jason's aftershave was filling her nostrils and she realised that she couldn't think about anything but the woody, cinnamon smell. She gave a stretch as she took a deep breath, it really did smell good.

Roxanne spotted Jason watching her stretch out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised. He gave her a grin and a wink as he licked his lips slowly.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, Turner."

"Just my eyes, Roxanne?" he asked her, with a seductive smile.

Roxanne almost gave in on the smile alone, she quickly came to her senses and sneered at him before standing up and moving away. Walking across the room to lean against the wall, making sure to check that it didn't have wet paint on it first.

"You really know how to get under my skin, Turner." Roxanne growled, folding her arms and looking back out at the match. She couldn't remember which team was in the lead and she damned Jason Turner for distracting her.

"I'd like to get under a lot more than that." He told her honestly. Roxanne turned to look at him in shock at his words as she tried to ignore the sudden rush of butterflies in her stomach at them. She stilled quickly at unwelcome images of Jason's arms wrapping themselves around her, as she looked at him. He had turned to look at her, one arm on the back of the chair as he smiled smugly, knowing that he had got to her with his words.

"You're impossible." Roxanne said, shaking her head at him. She was beginning to feel angry that she was letting him have this effect on her. "Does this kind of talk really work on all of those bimbos that you're always around?"

"We don't really talk," Jason told her with another smirk.

"You're sick." She told him shaking her head.

"I'm joking, Roxanne." Jason told her with a laugh. "I don't go home with any of those girls that the papers say I do. You shouldn't pay attention to what the papers and other people tell you about me. There's no truth in any of it."

"I would think a lot different with the way that you behave."

Jason stood up and began to slowly move towards where Roxanne was standing. She tensed up and tried to keep her face impassive, not wanting Jason to get a reaction out of her.

"Would you like to find out about my love life firsthand, Roxanne? You seem so interested in it."

Roxanne raised her eyebrows at him, "No, thank you. Besides, you wouldn't be able to handle me."

"I'd like to try," Jason told her, moving away from her and walking closer to the edge of the box to watch the Quidditch match, that they hadn't been paying any attention too.

Roxanne turned to look at him; letting her eyes travel over him as he stood with his arms crossed looking out at the pitch. She couldn't deny that she did like what she saw, she just knew that nothing would ever happen, it was a pity that Jason didn't realise that.

"There's no chance that it'll happen." Roxanne stated, turning to look at the match. She watched as the Tutshill seeker Patricia Gabor narrowly avoided being hit by a Bludger, before diving under a Portree chaser who was coming towards her.

"Do you want to put a bet on that?" Jason asked her.

"Nope," Roxanne said, making a popping sound on the P, as she walked to stand next to him, telling herself that it was to get a better look at the pitch.

"Are you afraid that you'll lose?" Jason asked her, turning to look at her as she stood next to him.

Roxanne scoffed. "I never lose, Turner."

"Neither do I, Weasley."

"I vaguely remember you losing your Quidditch match against my team, last year." Roxanne told him with a condescending smile.

Jason rolled his eyes at her as he shuffled slightly on the spot he was standing on, bringing him closer to Roxanne who refused to move from where she stood.

"You broke my arm, by hitting a Bludger at me. My team was already two men down before that point, because of your team."

Roxanne gave a shrug, "If you can't handle playing against a real team, then don't play Quidditch."

Jason let out a laugh and shook his head at her words, amusement written across his face.

"It's a good thing that you're beautiful. Not many people would get away with talking shit about the Wimbourne Wasps."

"It's not my fault that the Wasps are shit, I'm just stating the truth."  
A smile tugged on Jason's lips again.

"I can't wait until we play against each other. I'll show you how a real Beater plays on the pitch." Jason told her.

"Maybe this time I'll break both of your arms with a Bludger." Roxanne threatened.

"You're a feisty woman, Weasley. I like that quality; it makes me wonder exactly what you're like in the bedroom."

Roxanne bit her lip to try and stop herself from laughing as she shook her head and backed away, knowing that if she didn't leave the room she was going to either make Jason see exactly how feisty she was or end up breaking his arm there and then.

"In your dreams, Turner." Roxanne told him as she neared the door and grabbed hold of the handle, deciding that she would just go to her father's shop now. She could catch up with the rest of the match on his wireless in the shop, that way no one would be interrupting her.

"You're always in my dreams," Jason called after her. She shook her head and left the room, thankful that he didn't follow her out.

Roxanne gave a sigh as she began to make her way down the empty corridor and out of the stadium, hearing the cheering of the crowd outside and wondering what team had scored. She wasn't sure why Jason Turner had decided to begin intruding into her life, she also couldn't decide if she was happy about this or not. That was the main reason why she had removed herself from the situation, before she ended up doing something that she may have regretted later on.

~~

"Hey, Roxie." George called across the shop, after seeing his daughter walk in and begin looking around for him. Roxanne smiled as she walked over to him and gave him a hug.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her after moving away from her and walking back over to where he was putting some new stock on the shelves.

Roxanne began helping him fill the shelves up, remembering back in the day when she would spend most of her childhood hanging around the shop with Fred. Those days had long since gone; she and Fred had long since been at an age where they would hang around together.

Her opinion of Fred being the amazing older brother, had changed dramatically when she realised that Fred, had stolen Albus's girlfriend and denied that he had done anything wrong. Fred's actions drove Albus into a downward spiral of depression and it had taken everything her family could do, to get Albus to stop destroying himself with drink.

She had never looked at Fred in the same way since, not that Fred seemed to care about anyone else's opinion of him. All he cared about was his on/off girlfriend Leanne, the girl who had come between Fred and Albus who were once best friends.

Roxanne refused to get to know her. Most of the family had hated her, which made Fred more distant with the family, until they had both had a baby a few years ago. Roxanne adored her nephew Lee, but she wasn't as close with Fred as she had been.

"How has your day been?" George asked her.

"It's been alright," Roxanne told him with a shrug, "I was watching the game, but decided to leave and come up here to see you all." Roxanne decided to leave out her conversation with Jason Turner, not wanting her dad to get protective over her, as much as she loved him for it.

"Heya, Roxanne." Her Uncle Ron said, after walking over to them and putting a box of product down next to where George and Roxanne were putting stock on the shelves. "Tell your dad to go back to Diagon Alley. I have been running this branch for him for over a decade now, I think I know how to run things."

George rolled his eyes at his brother's comment. "Come on now Ron, my shops are like my children. I just like to check up on them from time to time, make sure that they're doing okay."

Roxanne gave a laugh, her dad and Uncle had been having the same argument for years.

"Who's at Diagon Alley today?" Roxanne asked.

"Fred is." George told her. "He wanted some extra shifts and I had them free as Louis and Rachel are both in France with the kids. Louis is trying to secure the deal about expanding the business in France."

"I would offer to help you out, dad," Roxanne began, but George waved his hand to dismiss the comment she was about to make.

"Don't worry about that, Roxie, you worry about training for your match. I think most of the family will be watching."

"I better make sure I win, then," Roxanne said with a smile. When she had first begun playing Quidditch professionally, she would be embarrassed about having most of her huge family coming to watch her and cheer her on as they waved a banner around, but now she loved it. In fact, she would always look out for her family when she could, the banner, that her father and Uncle Ron had made for her first ever match, was now her good luck charm.

"If you lose, we might have to disown you." Ron told her with a serious face, but Roxanne knew that he was joking by the amused look in his eyes.

"That gives me even more reason to want to win."

"Good, because it would be a shame to disown you, you're one of my favourite nieces." Ron told her with a grin.

Roxanne shook her head as she turned to look around the shop, seeing that a customer was waiting at the vacant till. She walked away from her Uncle and father and went to serve the woman, who seemed a bit star struck at having Roxanne serving her.

The shop was where Roxanne spent the rest of her day, hanging around with her father and making jokes at her Uncle's expense, loving the nostalgia she felt as she hung around in the shop that she had grown up in.


	4. Appleby Arrows vs Caerphilly Catapults

A/N: This is a very long chapter for you all and I hope that you really enjoy it. It's my first ever time writing a Quidditch match, so let me know what you think? They're quite difficult to write. :P

* * *

Roxanne stretched her arms high above her head, holding the position for a few moments before she dropped them and began moving them in a circular motion. Her other teammates were warming up around her, doing their own stretches to warm up their muscles. It wouldn't be long until they would need to make their way down to the pitch and the coach was giving them one last pep talk, whilst the captain, Thomas Harrison, was checking that the team were wearing the right protective equipment.

Roxanne stopped circling her arms and began bouncing up and down lightly on her toes, shaking her arms beside her, loosening them. Violet was stretching her legs on the floor not far from Roxanne, whilst listening intently to the coach who was telling the Chasers about plays they might want to try in the match.

Roxanne stopped jumping after a while and began bending over to touch her toes, she was thankful that her robes were stretchy otherwise this would have been difficult to do.

"I love the view, Roxanne." Shawn Chambers said from behind Roxanne. She stood up slowly and turned to look at the Keeper with a grin on her face.

"That's all you'll be getting, Shawn." She told him.

"I'll have to just keep imagining waking up in bed with both you and Violet," Shawn said with a laugh.

"It's a good thing that you were such a gentleman that night, otherwise I would have been worried about waking up to see you both passed out next to me."  
Shawn gave another laugh before he let Harrison check his equipment. Roxanne turned back around and began slowly rolling her head around as she looked at the coach, who was still talking to the Chasers.

"I thought that you wouldn't make it back from your walk in time to hear Gerald's pep talk," Violet said to Roxanne, who stopped rolling her head around and looked down at Violet. She had stopped stretching her legs and was slowly getting up off of the floor.

"I always make sure that I'm back in time for the pep talk," Roxanne told her a sarcastic tone to her voice, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"I sometimes wonder if you go for your walks just so you have an excuse to miss the talk," Violet said giving her a grin.

Before every match, Roxanne would take a walk around the inside of the stadium. It helped to calm her nerves and give her a clear head for the match. She would also use this time to check the weather conditions and decide if she would need to change any of her planned plays or tactics to suit the weather. Roxanne was glad that the weather was still sunny so it wouldn't affect her at all, unless the weather changed drastically and without warning.

Walking around the stadium before a match had become a tradition for her and she didn't want to stop doing it and risk the chance of jinxing herself. It was silly, she knew, but she couldn't bring herself to change her ways. It was like Violets need to make sure that her boot laces were tied in a certain way, she had been known to re-tie them on her way down to the field. Or like the Chaser, Harjeet Gupta's tradition of placing a kiss on the necklace his son had brought for him years ago, which he wore for every match. Jerome Housley was known to eat certain things before matches and each member of the team would high-five each other before they left the changing room.

Roxanne had heard of stranger traditions over the years, but it was all part of who they were and how they readied themselves for the matches ahead.  
"Weasley. Housley." Roxanne looked up at Gerald, "The Catapults are using Barber and Sternbridge, there have been rumours of them wanting to get Shawn out of the match first so make sure that you keep an eye out for any rogue Bludgers heading his way. Be careful out there, they're not the kind of team to resort to underhanded tactics to win, like the Wasps –"There was a low hiss at the mention of their rivals, "- but you can't be too careful."

Roxanne nodded, before looking at Thomas Harrison, who had stopped in front of her. He gave her the once over, checking that her uniform was correct, before grabbing for the fingerless gloves that she had yet to put on. They were made of leather and were padded to support and protect the bottom half of her arm; they were a light brown colour so that they wouldn't clash with her pale blue robes.

"Are you ready to kick some arse out there, Weasley?" he asked her as he helped her put the gloves on.

"I was born ready, Captain." Roxanne told him with a wide grin.

"Make us proud," he told her, giving her a wink as he helped her with the other glove. He moved away from her and went to Violet, who seemed to be the last player he was checking.

Roxanne took a deep breath as she clenched and unclenched her hand, making sure that her gloves weren't on too tightly and she was able to move her hands and fingers as much as she would need to. They fit perfectly.

"Five minutes until match time," Gerald said, after looking down at his watch. "Everyone out the door, we have a match to win."

The team all cheered, made sure to high five each other before grabbing for their brooms and walking out of the room slowly. They were all patting each other on the backs and saying words of encouragement as they made their way down the corridor and towards the part they would be flying out of and into the stands. They could already hear the loud chanting from their fans whilst in the changing rooms, but it became almost deafening as they stood waiting. The sounds gave Roxanne shivers and she couldn't help but grin in excitement, there was nothing that had ever given her the same great feelings as being in a Quidditch match, the atmosphere was electric and it never failed to make her feel alive.

Jerome Housley moved to stand next to her and Roxanne turned to face him, they both raised their Beater bats up and tapped them together with wide grins.

"It's going to be an amazing match, Roxanne." He told her as he threw his arm around her and pulled her to him, she hugged him tightly and he gave her a kiss on the head in the excitement. This escalated quickly into Violet joining them as she was standing behind them both.

"Arrows. Arrows. Arrows." They began to chant after they pulled away from each other and straightened out their robes and began to climb onto their brooms.

They stopped chanting as soon as they heard the commentator begin to call out to the fans in the stands.

_"__Welcome to the fifth game in the league." _The man called out, his voice amplified around the stadium, _"__The Appleby Arrows are facing the Caerphilly Catapults. With strong players on each side this is promising to be a great match."_

There were more cheers around them and Roxanne gripped her broom and bat more tightly, knowing that it wouldn't be long until her team were called onto the pitch. She was standing behind the three Chasers on her team, who were stood behind the Keeper; Violet was standing behind Jerome and Roxanne as she was the teams Seeker and would be the last to fly out into the stadium.

_"__So let's get this match started. Let's bring out the Appleby Arrows," _The doors burst open in front of them and they all flew out in turns when their names were called.

_"__We have – Chambers! Harrison! O'Connell! Gupta! Weasley! Housley! And Addams!"_

Roxanne felt the wind whipping around her face as she flew into the air and followed her team as they circled the stadium. Any fears that she might have felt before the match went away as soon as she was in the air. She smiled as she flew around, keeping focused on her team flying in front of her before they all went to their positions on the pitch. Only when she was hovering did she let herself look for her family in the stands.

She could see them in the sea of pale blue banners and T-shirts; they were sitting close to where she was hovering. Most of her family had made it out to see her; in fact, they had their own section of the stands to fit them all. She gave a wave at them all and she couldn't help but grin as she looked at the banner they had hung over the front of where they sat, the words, 'My daughter is a Quidditch star, so why am I in the stands with everyone else?' at first it had embarrassed her, but now she loved it. Her dad had brought the banner with him every match. The funny thing about the banner, was that her father could have been sitting in the box that was intended for the family and friends of the players to use. But as her family was so large they decided to sit themselves in the stands, to make it fairer on the other Quidditch players friends and families that would want to come to the games.

She listened as the commentator began calling out for the stadium to welcome the other team's players, (_"__Cosgrave! Leavell! Stracher! Lykes! Barber! Stembridge! And Steil!"_) Roxanne looked away from her family and over at Jerome Housley, they made eye contact and Roxanne nodded her head at him and then towards the other teams goalposts. Jerome gave her a discreet nod and turned back to look in front of him, understanding her telling him that she would be mainly using this part of the pitch, trying to defend their owl goals.

_"__Now, with all of the players in their positions the referee will release the balls and begin the game."_

Roxanne looked down at the grass and saw a tall blonde haired man in silver robes, pulling the trunk behind him with one hand, whilst the other clutched his broomstick.

She took a deep breath as she adjusted the grip on her Beater's bat and readied herself for the Bludger that was about to be released. The referee opened the trunk and all four balls flew out of it, the two Bludgers and the Snitch darting off quickly, whilst the Quaffle seemed to hover in the air in the middle of the pitch. Roxanne glanced quickly at Jerome and saw that he was watching the Bludger that had gone to the right of him; Roxanne knew that she would be chasing the other Bludger, which she had seen was flying around above her.

The referee blew the whistle and Roxanne shot straight up in the air, ignoring the cheers of the fans in the stadium. She neared the Bludger quickly and whacked it as hard as she could downwards and towards the Catapults chaser, Adrian Lyke, who had managed to get a hold of the Quaffle and was darting towards Shawn. The Bludger aimed straight for Adrian, who had raised his arm to throw the Quaffle. Adrian just managed to move out of the way of the Bludger before it made impact with him, but he had lost the Quaffle in the process. Shawn dived for it and caught it with ease before he threw it as hard as he could towards Thomas Harrison. Roxanne moved away from them and off in search of the Bludgers, making sure that she was defending her team from any that were hit towards them.

"Roxanne, rebound!" Jerome called over to her. Roxanne turned quickly at his voice and held her bat ready, she only just focused on him before he sent a Bludger towards her and she hit it as fast as she could towards the Catapults Keeper, Dante Cosgrove, who was forced to abandon his place in front of the middle goal hoop. This gave Harjeet Gupta enough time to throw the Quaffle through it.

The cheers erupted around the stadium as Harjeet punched his fist into the air in celebration, before high-fiving Thomas Harrison as he passed him.

_"__Gupta has scored for the Arrows," _the commentator yelled around the stadium,_ "__that's another ten points to them, which puts them in the lead with 50-40."_

Roxanne zoomed across the field and hit a Bludger away from Shawn, her eyes searched the field and she kept her position for a while whilst the Chasers attempted to score in the goals. She wasn't listening to the commentator as she attempted to stop the opposing teams Chasers from coming towards Shawn, but sometimes they were too quick for the Bludgers to hit them. She decided that her best bet was the move away from her defensive strategy and head a bit further out into the pitch.

She glanced up at the large scoreboard that was in front of a stand ahead of her, there were two scoreboards around the pitch so that people could see the amount of points that the teams had scored. She saw that her team were winning by 100-70, she hadn't even registered most of this happening as she was too focused on finding and hitting Bludgers and the Chasers were going too fast for her at times to wonder what the score was.

Roxanne's eyes searched around the pitch again. There was a Bludger heading towards her from across the other side and she was trying to work out where the best place was to aim it. The Bludger arrived at her before she made a decision so she hit it straight above her, making it fly higher into the air.

_"__Weasley has hit the Bludger into the air, that's not the kind of mistake that you want to be making. She was meant to be aiming it towards the players on the opposing team," _She heard the commentator tell the pitch.

"I know how to do my job," Roxanne growled to herself as she glanced up quickly to see how much time she would have before the Bludger came flying back down towards her. It was still flying upwards and was beginning to slow itself down, as though readying itself for the fall back down to earth. Roxanne used this time to glance back across the field. She saw that one of the Catapults Beaters was watching for the other Bludger that was being hit between the three other Beaters on the pitch. None of the Catapults Beaters seemed to be paying attention to Roxanne, which was a mistake.

Roxanne gave a smirk as she moved her grip down the bat and looked back up at the Bludger, that was beginning to head towards her at a breakneck speed. She backed her broom up slowly and brought her arm back and waited for the right moment, before swinging her bat and hitting the Bludger as hard as she could. A loud crack filled the stadium and Roxanne was worried that the force of the hit was going to break her bat in half; the Bludger flew towards Sternbridge, one of the Catapults Beaters.

He didn't see it in time and it collided with the back of his broom, sending him flying down to the ground. He slowed down before he made it to the bottom, due to a spell that had been put on the stadiums to prevent any fatal accidents that could occur, but it didn't slow down people quickly enough to prevent any damage from happening.

_"__I take back my words, that was a perfect hit from Weasley. We're going to need to watch out for her this match."_ The commentator roared around the stadium. Roxanne felt herself smiling as the stadium filled with cheers. This distracted the Catapult Chasers enough for Thomas Harrison to punch the Quaffle out of Adrian Lykes hands and zoom across the pitch with it.

_"__Lykes should have been keeping his eyes on the Quaffle instead of Sternbridge; I bet he'll be regretting that – of course he will, as Harrison has scored again. That brings the scores up to 110 – 70 in favour of the Arrows. Come on, Catapults, you don't want the Arrows getting the lead here."_

Roxanne let her eyes search around the stadium for the Bludgers, whilst also trying to keep her attention on the other members of her team. With the Catapults down one Beater, it was in favour to her team. If Sternbridge stayed out of the game for long enough, her and Jerome would be able to take control of both Bludgers, hitting them to each other until they needed to hit them towards another player. It was something that they had practiced enough during practices to know that they could pull it off.

Roxanne's eyes found Jerome, who was flying about thirty feet from her; he turned to face her as though he sensed her looking at him and Roxanne raised her bat up and began moving it in circles. Jerome understood what she meant and gave her a grin before darting after a Bludger that was moving ahead of him. Roxanne kept her eye out for the other Bludger that Edison Barber, the remaining Beater for the Catapults, had hit towards Violet Adams, who had dived quickly out of the way by spinning upside down on her broom.

Jerome turned around and hit the Bludger, he had been chasing, back across the pitch in the direction that Roxanne was in. It was a difficult thing to do, but Jerome and Roxanne had been practicing this move for months and had been trying to perfect it. Roxanne moved across the field so that she could hit the Bludger back at Jerome, before flying upwards so that she could hit the Bludger that was zooming in her direction. She hit it towards Jerome as well and it narrowly missed the Bludger that was hit back at her.

_"__What on earth are Housley and Weasley doing? Barber hasn't been able to get one hit on the Bludger since they both took control of it. A fabulous move, it's clear to see that they've been practicing this one."_

They continued this for a few more moments before Jerome fired the first Bludger towards Carson Steil, the Catapults Seeker, who was speeding along the bottom of the pitch after Violet, clearly both having seen the Snitch. The Bludger just narrowly missed Steil, causing him to veer off slightly, but he tried to fly back on the path he had been.

Roxanne hit the Bludger downwards as soon as it came towards her and it went straight into the path of Steil. Who this time didn't managed to swerve out of the way of the Bludger and instead side rolled, losing the grip on his broom and causing him to be dragged along the grass of the pitch, before he let go of his broom. Cheers immediately erupted around the stadium and Roxanne looked down to see that Violet had caught the Snitch. She let out a loud cheer before punching the air.

_"__Addams has caught the Snitch!"_ The cheer around the stadium was almost deafening and Roxanne felt like she was floating on cloud nine as she continued punching the air. Jerome was flying towards her and slowed down enough to hug her in excitement. _"__That was some fine work by Weasley and Housley in knocking Steil off of Violet's back. The crowd is going wild and so they should, with the points added for the capture of the Snitch, the Appleby Arrows have won the match with a score of 260 - 70."_

Roxanne and Jerome pulled away from each other and soon joined their other teammates, who had begun to circle the stadium in a celebratory fly. The Caerphilly Catapults were all flying to the ground to commiserate each other, whilst the referee was waving his wand so that the Bludgers would go back into their box.

Once they had circled the stadium once in celebration. They slowed down a little and moved both hands off of their brooms as they flew, pretending to shoot arrows from pretend bows. Years and years ago the Appleby Arrows had shot real arrows after they had won, but due to some nasty accidents. They weren't allowed to use real arrows. But they still felt the need to celebrate in the same way.

~~

Roxanne was still grinning madly as she made her way out of the changing rooms, her backpack slung over her shoulder and her hair damp from the shower that she had taken. The team was planning on meeting at the pub close to their training grounds so that they could celebrate in style, in a few hours time and Roxanne was going to go spend some time with her family, before she began getting ready for it.

She ran over to the entrance of the stadium and saw her family were waiting for her. Her mother even had hold of a large bouquet of flowers that she hadn't noticed before when they were sitting in the stands, but she didn't give that much thought in that moment, as she was engulfed in a hug from her father, who was soon joined by the other family members.

Roxanne gave a laugh and warned her family that she couldn't breathe before they decided to pull away from her. Her father went in for another hug and picked her up as he told her, "I am so proud of you, Roxxie."

"Thank you, dad," she told him as she moved away and smiled at him.

"You were amazing out there," Lily told her from beside Roxanne's father. Roxanne turned to look at her cousin and was thankful that she had made it to the game. She knew that Lily had been busy lately and wasn't sure if she would make it.

Roxanne gave a grin, "It wasn't just me, the others were amazing as well."

"The way that you and Jerome hit those Bludgers at each other towards the end, it was going so fast that at times I couldn't keep up with it." Ron told his niece excitedly, he turned to look at the others and they all nodded in agreement at him. "It was like you were trying to create a Tornado, just with the Bludgers."

"The Catapults Beater couldn't keep up with you both," Angelina told her daughter, as she came forwards and placed a kiss on her daughter's cheek, which was a bit difficult with the large bouquet of flowers. "Oh, these are for you, Roxxie." Angelina told her daughter as she handed the flowers over.

"These are huge, thank you." Roxanne said in amazement as she looked at the flowers. She took a deep breath and relished in the beautiful scent that came off of them.

"Oh, they're not from any of us," Roxanne looked up in confusion as her cousin Victoire spoke, stepping forwards with a knowing grin on her face.

"Then who are they from?" Roxanne asked, she looked at the flowers and tried to see if there was a card on them at all, there wasn't.

"Jason Turner," Victoire told her, Roxanne looked up in shock and knew exactly why Victoire had that smug grin on her face, she was holding out a card that had come with the flowers. Roxanne took it slowly after handing the flowers over to Lily to hold for her.

Roxanne opened the card and looked down at the elegant scrawl of Jason's handwriting. She was slightly amazed at how neat his writing was and wondered if someone else had written the note for him.

'Roxanne,

You certainly know how to keep a man on his toes. If your moves on the pitch are anything to go by, we're going to have a lot of fun together when you finally agree to be mine.

Yours, J'

Roxanne felt herself blushing at his words and hid the card quickly in her trouser pocket, scared to let anyone else see the card, much to the chagrin of her cousins. Her father on the other hand did not look happy about the flowers or the card.

"Did he send these?" Roxanne asked quickly as she tried to ignore her cousins talking about how she was blushing and trying to work out what the card had said.

"No, he came into our stand and personally delivered them." Victoire said with a smile. Roxanne noticed the dark look on her father's face getting darker; he was being protective of her she knew.

"He waited around for a while and watched you play, he disappeared before the match ended as though he wasn't meant to be there."

"Roxanne, I think that Jason Turner likes you." Victoire said with a grin.

"I think that he needs to learn that he can't just buy my affection with flowers," Roxanne told them, taking the flowers back off of Lily and turning around so that they could all leave. She tried not to show that she was smelling the flowers again as she attempted to keep the grin off of her face and the butterflies from filling her stomach again at the thought of Jason.


	5. Elixir

Roxanne rushed over to her wardrobe before rummaging through it for something to wear. She was running late as her coach had kept her and Jerome back after their practice, to tell them both that a talent scout was rumoured to be watching their match against the Wimbourne Wasps. Something that Roxanne didn't want to worry herself about until she had to, she didn't want to mess everything up by over thinking.

She had more pressing things to worry about at the moment, such as the fact that Lily was going to be arriving any minute now. Violet planned to meet them at the club with Shawn later that evening, and Roxanne had only managed to shower, put her hair up and put on her makeup. Clothes were another matter entirely, she had no idea what to wear. She couldn't just wear her underwear outside, she dreaded to think of the newspaper article that would appear in that situation.

Roxanne winced slightly as she raised an arm to push some clothes around in her wardrobe, realising that she had too many dresses but wanted to wear none of them. She knew that she should have gone shopping to get some more, but it was too late now.

"Are you still not ready?"

Roxanne let out a loud sigh as she heard her cousin walk into her bedroom. Lily must have let herself in with the spare key, that Roxanne had given her for emergencies. Roxanne still pushed through the dresses as she tried to ignore the ache in her ribs.

"Whoa, that is a big bruise!" Lily stated as she walked over to Roxanne, noticing the large yellow and purple mark that spread across her ribs and some of her back. "What happened?"

"Bludger to the side. Jerome hit it at me whilst I was aiming the other Bludger. We were trying to re-enact what we had done in our match, but he hit the Bludger too early and cracked my ribs. Thankfully the Healer fixed my ribs, but sadly the bruising is still there and it kills."

"Why don't you use some of the bruise remover that Uncle George sells?" Lily asked her, as she helped her to rummage through the wardrobe for a dress.

"I haven't had the time to go home and ask for it. I'll go tomorrow." Roxanne told her.

"Depending on how hungover you are," Lily said with a smirk, as she pulled out a red dress and admired it, before shoving it towards Roxanne. Roxanne took it without question and moved away from the wardrobe so that she could put it on.

"I plan on drinking a lot. I don't have a practice tomorrow so I can stay in bed all day." Roxanne stated as she pulled the dress down so that it came down about halfway down her thighs. She smoothed out the fabric so that no creases or wrinkles were showing. Roxanne loved wearing this dress, Lily had great taste. She turned to face Lily, who was looking at her with a smile on her face as she held out a pair of heels for her to wear. Roxanne took the shoes before sitting on the end of her bed and putting them on.

"I take it that Lysander is going to the club tonight?" Roxanne asked Lily, as she finished fastening them.

"What makes you think that?" Lily asked dismissively, She walked over to Roxanne's dressing table and took a perfume bottle, spraying herself with it.

"You're wearing the Lysander dress." Roxanne stated.

"I like this dress." Lily replied with a shrug.

"You just like what it does to Lysander," Roxanne told her, as she stood up and walked over to her perfume table to pick up a scent herself.

"I have no idea what you mean. Shall I get us a glass of wine to drink before we leave?" Lily asked her, and before waiting for an answer she left the room.

They arrived at the club around half an hour later, choosing to apparate to an alleyway not far from where the club was situated in London. They walked arm in arm towards their usual club, which was called Elixir. It was owned by a wizard who had clubs and pubs up and down the country and this was one of the ones that she and Lily would often go to. The main reason for that was because of its distance from where they lived.

Roxanne loved it here, mainly because absolutely no reporters were allowed to visit it. It was a strictly no photography club, if you wanted a photograph of your time here there were people, walking around with magical camera's that would be more than happy to take your pictures for you. The reason for this was so that people like Roxanne, who were in the public eye, had no photos come out in papers that may possibly be damaging to them.

Roxanne noticed that the club already had a line out front as they approached and joined it. Roxanne could have gone to the front and gotten entry straight away, but she thought that it was unfair seeing as though everyone else had been waiting. Thankfully the line wasn't that long and Lily and Roxanne were already in high spirits, so it passed the time quickly.

Within ten minutes, they were inside the club and were looking around for Violet and Shawn in the crowd that were already there, dancing along to the music. Roxanne spotted them over by the bar and squeezed through the crowds of dancers to make her way over to them, rushing as quickly as she could in her heels and be able to keep her balance. Violet hugged her tightly before moving back and admiring Roxanne's dress, Roxanne twirled on the spot with a laugh, before giving Shawn a kiss on the cheek.

"Looking good, Roxanne," Shawn stated as he handed them all a bright blue drink in a tall shot glass. It seemed to be bubbling. "That's the kind of dress that'll break hearts."

"I'll drink to that," Lily said with a smile, holding her shot up in a toast. The others did the same before drinking their shots. Roxanne could feel the bubbles sliding down into her stomach and a warmth began to fill her.

"I must say, I feel like a very lucky guy, being surrounded by all of you beautiful ladies." Shawn told them all, as he leant on the bar and admired them.

They all smiled at him and thanked him, Violet even gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Isn't he the sweetest?"

"I think those kind words deserve another shot. Who wants to try a Screaming Ghoul?" Lily asked them all as she stood at the bar and began to rummage in her purse for some money.

"You were amazing on the pitch."

Roxanne gave a smile to the barman as he prepared her cocktail, Cackling Witches Brew. She was getting herself a drink whilst Lily 'chatted' with Lysander, in an area of the club that had booths. Lysander had turned up about half an hour after they had and asked if he could speak to Lily alone for a while. Roxanne hadn't seen her since, which she took to mean that they were back together.

Lily and Lysander broke up and got back together so often, that Roxanne didn't know what was happening anymore with the two. Violet and Shawn had left her a few minutes ago so that they could go outside and have a cigarette, apparently they were only social smokers, so Roxanne was left talking to the barman.

"Thank you." Roxanne told him with a grin.

"The way that you and Housley work together is fantastic. How did you manage to read each other's thoughts like that?" He asked her as she leant across the counter slightly, so that she could hear him over the music playing.

"It took a lot of practice."

The barman finished her drink and handed it to her, she went to have him a few Galleons, but he told her to put it away as the drink was on the house. She thanked him before she moved away from the bar. She took a seat on a few chairs to the side of the room near to the door, so that Violet and Shawn could find her when they came back.

Roxanne was sipping at her drink, which she thought was delicious, when she heard a voice from behind her that caused chills to go through her. She turned around and found herself facing Jason Turner. Roxanne raised an eyebrow as she turned fully in her seat so that she could face him, she noticed that he was here with his friend Sydney Hannigan. The two men were both clutching bottles of beer and Roxanne had to admit that they both looked very good, they certainly were gaining the attention of the women around them.

"Fancy seeing you two here," Roxanne stated. Jason gave her a grin as he sat himself down in an empty chair, Sydney sitting next to him. "You're becoming very good at stalking me, Turner."

"I'm not stalking you. I didn't know that you were coming here, Sydney invited me out." Jason stated, patting Sydney on the arm, who nodded.

"How do we know that you're not the one stalking Jason?" Sydney asked Roxanne, who let out a laugh at his words.

"He's the one who's been sending me flowers and turning up at places that I'm at." Roxanne told him loudly, so he could hear her over the loud music.

"Merely a coincidence," Jason said with a shrug, he leant forwards and smirked at her. "The usual reaction to being sent flowers is to thank the sender."

"Thank you, Turner." Roxanne stated, before turning around to look around for Violet and Shawn. She wanted to be saved from being near both Jason and Sydney. She didn't want to admit to Jason that she had loved the flowers and that she couldn't stop reading the card and wondering if his words were true. She didn't want to admit out loud that, at times, she wanted nothing more than to find out.

She heard Sydney saying something to Jason, before she saw him stand up out of the corner of her eyes.

"Are you game, Weasley?" Jason asked her as Sydney stood next to her and waited for her answer.

"For what?" she asked him as she sipped at her drink again, she was upset that it was disappearing fast.

"A few shots," Jason stated.

"No, she wouldn't be. Wouldn't want me to show her up when I can drink more shots than her." Sydney said with a laugh, which caused Roxanne to give a laugh herself, biting the straw between her teeth before she answered him.

"You're just scared that I'm going to drink you under the table." Roxanne stated which caused Jason to laugh.

"You heard the woman, go and get the shots." Jason told Sydney, who smiled before leaving the two, to walk over to the bar. "I hope you realise what you've gotten yourself into, Weasley."

"Don't worry, Turner. I do." She told him sweetly, smiling at him after she had finished her cocktail.

An hour later, Roxanne was beginning to feel the effects of the shots, so far they were all even on five and Roxanne was feeling more than tipsy.  
Roxanne laughed loudly as she shoved Jason playfully, Sydney laughed next to them as he grabbed for another shot and went to hand it to Roxanne, who held her hands up.

"Give me one minute. I feel like having a bit of a dance with Violet." She told them, as she stood up and pulled her dress down a bit so that it was at the right length. She walked away from the table, stumbling slightly as she made her way across the dance floor in her search of Violet, who was dancing with Shawn.

"How's the contest going?" Shawn asked Roxanne with a laugh, nodding over in the direction of where Roxanne had been sat with Jason and Sydney. Violet and Shawn had found them all sitting together earlier on when they had come back into the club and had declined the invitation to have shots with them, instead deciding to spend their time on the dance floor.  
Roxanne turned to look in the direction she had come from and saw Jason and Sydney downing another shot.

"I think that I'm winning, although I wouldn't put it passed them to be cheating." Roxanne told them slurring slightly, as she turned back to look at Violet.

Violet laughed as she and Roxanne danced, "Have you seen Lily around? Last I saw she was with Lysander." Roxanne asked them loudly, as she looked around for a sign of their cousin.

"She left about twenty minutes ago," Shawn told her, "she seemed to be having an argument with Lysander."

"Oh, we were meant to be going home together." Roxanne stated, sounding sad. She hoped that her cousin got back home safely. Hopefully Lysander would have taken her home.

"At least I've still got you two here," Roxanne said happily, wrapping her arms around the two.

"I think I might go home soon as well," Violet admitted to her after Roxanne had let them both go.

"Oh, don't go yet." Roxanne cried, holding onto Violet's arms as though she were going to leave right that second.

"Roxanne, I want to go home as there's some creepy guy here that doesn't seem to want to leave me alone." Violet admitted sadly, Roxanne felt a frown fill her face as she looked around her for a sign of this guy that she didn't know. "Roxanne, Shawn has sorted it and we've talked to some of the staff, but I'm worried that he might try and get back in. He was nice to begin with but he started getting angry and pushy whilst Shawn and I were talking to him outside. It's just made me feel a bit uncomfortable, that's all."

"If that's what you have to do to feel safe, Violet, I completely understand." Roxanne said, pulling Violet into a hug before letting go of her and turning to face Shawn. "You better be taking her home, Shawn."

"Don't worry Roxanne, I look after my girls. That creep isn't going anywhere near her." Shawn told her honestly.

"Did you want to come with us?" Violet asked her, glancing over to where Sydney was. Jason seemed to have disappeared from the table, probably getting them more drinks.

"I'll be fine," Roxanne told her with a smile, shaking her head. She didn't want to go home just yet, she was having a lot of fun. "They may be idiots but they wouldn't let anything happen to me."

"Who would have thought such words will be uttered from us about the Wasps, our mortal enemies." Shawn said, shaking his head but laughing all the same.

"Be safe you two," Roxanne told them as she watched them leave the dance floor, after giving her hugs goodbye. She walked over to where she had been sitting and took a seat next to Jason, who had just returned from the bar with what looked like a tray full of different coloured drinks.

"I really don't think we're going to make our practice tomorrow," Sydney said with a laugh as he grabbed for one of the drinks. "It looks like Weasley is back with us, shall we pick up where we left off? I think this would be our sixth drink."

"Where's your friends gone?" Jason asked her, looking around the club and noticing that Violet and Shawn had disappeared.

"Shawn's taken Violet home as some creepy dude was making her uncomfortable. At first I thought it might be you, but she was talking about another creep." Roxanne said, laughing before she could stop herself at the look on Jason's face.

"That was a good one, Weasley." Sydney said, before high fiving Roxanne as they laughed at Jason. Jason shook his head at them, but laughed as well.

"Oh, don't get all high and mighty, Turner." Roxanne said, ruffling his hair and laughing at him, before she leant across him and took the shot that Sydney passed her. "My cousin has already left, so it's just us three."

"Sounds like fun to me." Jason stated with a smirk at Roxanne, as they downed the drinks and placed the empty glasses back down on the table. Jason turned back to look at Roxanne, throwing an arm around the back of the chair and behind her shoulders, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"Have I ever told you how amazingly gorgeous you look, Weasley?" Jason told her. Roxanne smirked at his words, before turning to look at him so that their noses were almost touching. She noticed that Jason's eyes flickered down to her lips.

"You have said something along those lines, actually." Roxanne told him with a smile.

"Have I told you that I want nothing more than to kiss you?" he whispered before leaning his head forwards and attempting to close the distance between the two of them. Roxanne quickly ducked her head out of the way and shook her head at Jason.

"It's going to take a lot more than that, to get me to kiss you, Turner, nice try." Roxanne told him. Jason shook his head at her before leaning back and sitting back properly on the seat, moving his arm so that it now rested on Roxanne's shoulders, she rolled her eyes but moved closer to him.

"I think you'll be giving in before the end of the night, Weasley." Jason told her.

~~

Roxanne stumbled slightly as she pulled Jason towards her, thankful that she was wearing her high heels so that she wouldn't have to tiptoe to place her lips on his. Her hearing was slightly muffled from the noise from the club and she was feeling quite drunk. The shots she had earlier were more than to blame for that.

She was entirely thankful that Jason had been able to apparate her out of the club, even in his own drunken state. She knew that she wouldn't have been able to find her own way home without splinching herself. She couldn't even get Jason to understand whereabouts in London she lived, so he ended up just apparating them both to his. Her drunk brain didn't seem to want to process that she was now going to be staying at his flat and was too drunk to take herself home, all it wanted to do was find out if Jason's lips were as soft as they looked.

"I need to get the door open," Jason mumbled against her lips.

"I'm not stopping you," Roxanne stated, before raising a hand and placing it on the back of his head, keeping him at her lips. He let out a groan before pulling away from her and muttering the unlocking charm for his door. He opened the door and pulled her inside so that they were out of eyesight and earshot of anyone, before Roxanne knew what was happening, Jason had pulled her to him and continued kissing her. She faintly heard the door shutting next to her.

Roxanne ran her hands across Jason's broad shoulders as she opened her mouth so that their kiss could deepen, she felt Jason's tongue running across her lips before it was met with her own. Through her drunken haze she heard him groan and she couldn't help but move her hands up to his hair, gripping it in her hands as she continued kissing him. He pushed her backwards and she felt her back hit the wall behind her. Jason moved away from her mouth and placed kisses along her jaw line before making their way down to her neck as his hands skimmed down her side and grabbed for the bottom of her dress, inching it up her thighs. Roxanne bit her lip as she felt her head swimming with the moment they were sharing, as well as the amount of alcohol that she had drunk that night. Her hands moved down to his shirt and she started to clumsily try to undo his buttons.

She felt him move his mouth away from her neck and capture her lips again in a hungry kiss. They moved away from each other and Roxanne pulled her dress up over her head, so that she was standing in her underwear and began to try and undo Jason's shirt buttons again. After a while she got so frustrated that she ended up ripping the buttons off of his shirt.

"Jason, we shouldn't do this here." Roxanne slurred, she was thankful that they had managed to get into Jason's flat before it got to this moment, she wasn't sure she would appreciate everyone in the hall getting an eyeful of them both.

Jason stopped kissing her and rested his head on hers, he was out of breath and he looked like he didn't want to stop kissing her.

"We should stop because you're too drunk," he told her regretfully.

"I'm not too drunk," Roxanne slurred to him, "I want to do this."

Jason bit his lip and looked down at her as hemoved his hands down onto her hips and his thumbs were caressing her skin. He noticed that she had bruises across her ribs and he pulled away from her and looked down at it, concern written on his face.

"What happened?" He asked her. Roxanne pouted slightly as he moved away from her and looked down at what he was talking about, she ran a hand over where her bruise was, harder than she meant to, and winced slightly.

"Bludger to the ribs during practice today," Roxanne stated moving around and stumbling slightly, Jason caught her quickly and righted her. "I wasn't paying attention and before I knew what happened, it cracked my ribs. The coach said that I was lucky I didn't fall off of my broom."

"You need to be more careful," Jason told her as he took a hold of her hand, as she was still poking at the bruising, he brought it up to his lips and kissed it lightly. Roxanne looked up into his eyes and could feel the spark between them igniting again, her breath hitched in her throat as she wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on her again, she wanted to be intoxicated by him, wanted to drown in him and not come up for air in a very long time.

"We should get you to sleep. I don't want you regretting this in the morning." Jason told her honestly. He pulled her gently away from where they were stood and further into the flat, he stopped at a closed door before he opened it and entered. Roxanne dropped his hand as she walked into the room and looked around her.

"I'll try and find you something to wear tonight," He told her as he walked over to his wardrobe and looked through it. Roxanne took a seat on his bed, before deciding to lay down on it and look over at him.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" She asked him, feigning innocence, he turned around to look at her and smiled.

"Absolutely nothing. But I'll be able to control myself a bit better around you when you're not practically naked and on my bed."

"You could always join me?" She stated with a smirk. She blew Jason a kiss and he moved away from the wardrobe and made his way over to her, a T-shirt was clutched in his hand.

He climbed onto the bed and hovered over her, looking down into her eyes.

"You really are something else, Roxanne." Jason admitted to her, he ran his fingers down the side of her face tenderly before he gave her another kiss. Roxanne rested her hands on Jason's stomach as she kissed him back. He moved away from her before he kissed down her body, he stopped once he got to her bruising and gave it a few light kisses. Roxanne felt her stomach fill with the most glorious butterflies and she never wanted Jason to stop kissing her, ever.

Jason sat up and moved away from her, causing Roxanne to open her eyes and look up at him with a frown. He stood up and held out a hand for her to take, she did so and he pulled her up gently so that she was sitting up straight. He held out the T-shirt for her to take and she did so before pulling it on so that it covered her, she looked down at it quickly.

"I'm glad that it's not a Wasps T-shirt." She told him.

"I would never be that cruel to you." Jason told her as he knelt in front of her so that he could take her shoes off of her. She gave him a grin before pulling him in for another kiss; they kissed for a few more moments, before Jason pulled away from her again.

"I'm going to go and get you some water, try and sober you up a bit." Jason told her.

"I'll be fine." She told him as he moved away from her and she shuffled further up the bed so that she was lying with her head on the pillow and looking over at him.

"I'll be back in a minute."  
When he came back a few minutes later, with a glass of water, he found that she had fallen asleep. He placed the glass of water on the cabinet beside the bed, before getting ready for bed himself.

He climbed into bed and covered her with the quilt, before turning on his side and looking at her with a smile.

"I don't think you realise what you're doing to me, Roxanne." He stated, before he took hold of her hand gently and held it as he drifted off to sleep.


	6. Winston

Roxanne could feel the world spinning before she even opened her eyes. The sickness was already filling her and she wanted to do nothing more then go back to sleep, she snuggled deeper into her quilt and tried to let the sleep take back over her when she realised that her bed felt different somehow.

Giving a frown, she let her eyes flutter open to look down at the quilt she had pulled up to her face, noticing the blue colour of it, she didn't remember changing the cover on her bed, the last she remembered it was pink. Was she turning into one of those weird drunks who cleaned whilst under the influence?

She turned around planning to ask Violet what happened the night before as she knew that the girl would be asleep next to her, it was like some sort of ritual for them both, but when she turned, fighting the urge to throw up as she moved, she noticed that it wasn't Violet who was sleeping next to her. It was Jason Turner.

Her eyes opened wider as fear flooded through her, what had she done last night and why was Jason in her bed?

Only it wasn't her bed that she was in, as she looked around, she noticed that this wasn't her bedroom, this must have been Jason's.

She lifted the covers slightly so that she could get a good look at herself and noticed with thanks that she was wearing clothes, although they weren't hers. That was strange. She gave a frown as she realised that Jason had been the one to change her clothes for her, there was a high chance that they had done a lot more than she had thought.

Before she could dwell more on the fact, there was a scratching noise at the closed bedroom door and Roxanne gave a frown at what the noise could be.

"Winston," Jason muttered in his sleep. "Stop it."

Roxanne frowned again at Jason's words. Who the hell was Winston?

The scratching continued for a few more moments before the door opened, Roxanne watched with wide eyes as she waited for 'Winston' to appear. There was more scratching on the floor before a British Bulldog jumped onto the bed, directly on Jason and began to attempt to lick his face. Jason let out a groan as he tried to push him away in his sleepy state; Roxanne couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips as Jason failed to push the dog away.

"Winston, get off of the bed." Jason said, trying to make his voice stern, but it was hard when he was trying not to yawn. Winston realised that there was someone else in the bed, before turning to Roxanne and beginning to lick her arms, she gave a laugh as she squirmed out of the way and began petting him. Winston lay down in between Roxanne and Jason and let Roxanne scratch him behind the ears, Winston began to kick his legs, which were catching Jason in the back with every kick he gave.

"Damn dog," Jason said as he sat up slowly and got out of bed, Roxanne watched as Jason walked away from her and over to the door, noticing that he was wearing only boxers. "I forget that you know how to open doors now." Winston jumped off of the bed and over to where Jason was walking, nearly tripping him in the process of trying to get ahead of him.

She heard Jason walking down the hallway and Winston excitedly barking at him, it wasn't long before Jason came back into the room and lay back down on the bed; Roxanne looked down at him as he put an arm over his eyes and groaned slightly.

"I didn't know that you had a dog." Roxanne stated slowly.

"There's a lot about me that you don't know." Jason responded, his arm still over his eyes.

"When did you get him?" she asked, sitting herself up in the bed but still having the quilt cover over her legs as she looked down at him, realising how strange it was that she seemed quite comfortable being there and talking to him, she really shouldn't have been, she should have been making her excuses and making a quick getaway.

"I got him over three years ago; it was a twenty fifth birthday present from my dad." He told her, moving his arm so that he could look up at her.

She gave a small laugh before adding, "I forget just how old you are."

"Oi," Jason said with a laugh as he tried to poke her in the side, she moved out of his reach and gave another laugh. Jason turned to look at the clock on his bedside unit before letting out another groan. "I've got to get ready for training, did you want anything to eat?" he asked her as he sat up and made to get out of the bed again, this time he grabbed for a pair of trousers that were on the floor next to his bed and pulling them on. Roxanne tried to avert her eyes, but couldn't help but glance at him, he turned to face her and she looked up at his face quickly, he was waiting expectantly for her answer to his question.

Roxanne shook her head at his words, ignoring the nausea going through her at the mention of food; she would have to pay a visit to her mother at some point just so she could get some food from her.

"Well, I'm going to grab something quickly, coach will kill me if he finds out I haven't eaten... Although he'll be killing me if he finds out I was drinking with you last night and had you sleeping in my bed."

"Might be best to leave that part out of your night," Roxanne agreed as she got out of bed herself and stood awkwardly beside it as she tried not to let her eyes scan over Jason's naked torso, scratching the back of her head and noticing with a groan that her hair was dishevelled and she probably could do with a good shower. Jason seemed to have read her mind.

"If you wanted to shower whilst I get some food, it's just through the door down the hall."

~~~~

Roxanne closed her eyes tightly as she let the hot water run over her, as she tried to recollect her memories of the night before.

She was an idiot, she knew that. She didn't know why she thought that it would be such a good idea to spend the night drinking with people that were meant to be her rivals. The rules were quite clear, stay away from them.

The rivalry had been going on for years and they had all been told time and time again that it's just not worth being seen with each other. The times that her team had been in the same place as the Wasps, violence normally always ensued, except of course for the official Quidditch meetings, mainly because no one wanted to get sanctioned before a big match. That's why they kept their violence on the pitch.

And yet here she was fraternizing with the enemy, more than fraternizing, she had slept in the same bed as Jason Turner and was now showering in his house, she was desperately ignoring the fact that they kissed last night, hoping that if she ignored it then it didn't happen. If her manager, or Jason's, or even the Prophet found out then they would be absolutely screwed.

But why couldn't she bring herself to leave.

She blamed Jason for this, she was sure that he was doing this on purpose, making her want to be around him.

It didn't help that he had a damn cute dog.

She let out a groan as she opened her eyes and grabbed for the 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner, she would rewash her hair when she got home, but it would do for now, and tried to think of how she could get away from this whole situation and keep her job secure.

She would have to try and cut off all ties with Jason, which was pretty hard considering he was very charming, and sexy. Roxanne stilled the lathering of her hair when she realised what she had just thought, her mind going back to the day before when she was kissing Jason and how great it felt, seeing him topless had also been a very good sight to see. She felt her stomach flip as she bit her lip to stop her smile.

She came out of the bathroom slowly, looking around to see if Jason was around, she saw that the hallway was empty. She was wrapped in a towel and realised too late that she had left her dress in Jason's bedroom, where it had gone to she didn't know.

As she entered the bedroom, she noticed that Jason was in the process of getting changed, she watched as he pulled on his t shirt, admiring the muscles in his back as he moved, biting her lip as she enjoyed the view before her. He turned around to face her as he continued pulling down his t shirt and she caught a quick glimpse of his taut stomach. She loved that he kept himself fit and healthy, she knew that he tried to keep himself in the height of fitness, wanting to try and be the best at his game, it was the same for Roxanne, that was the reason that she ran as often as she could, or why she would work on her arm muscles.

She released her lip from her teeth when she realised that she was still biting it, looking up at Jason's face when she realised that she had been caught staring at him, but she noticed that his eyes were skimming over her own body.

"Well, this is a very pleasant surprise," Jason said to her huskily and Roxanne felt her stomach clenching pleasantly at the sound of his voice. "You look delicious in that towel."

Roxanne felt a smirk filling her face at his words, she may not be allowed to fraternize with the enemy, but it didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy the effect that she seemed to have on Jason whenever she was around him. She knew that she was lying to herself and everyone around her when she said that she didn't enjoy it, because let's face it, she really did. She was just trying to deny it to herself.

"What I wouldn't give to get that towel off of you and show you what I would have done to you last night if you hadn't have been too drunk."

Roxanne raised her eyebrows at him in question and surprise at his words, trying to stop herself from dropping the towel that was only being kept up by her own grip.

"I'm not stopping you," Roxanne stated in a seductive tone a wicked smirk on her face as she looked at him.

Jason gave his own smirk as he walked towards her, raising a hand to run it gently down her face, before running the hand further down her neck, Roxanne looked up into his eyes and saw that he was looking at her hungrily. Her resolve was dropping and her towel nearly was as well as Jason leant his head down, his lips nearing hers.

"Jason, are you ready yet?" a voice called through the flat, causing Jason and Roxanne to pull away from each other.

Jason gave a groan at the voice and left the room, they could hear Winston barking loudly in the next room, where the visitor was.

"Yeah, yeah, I just need to take Winston out quickly," she heard Jason calling as he walked to the other room where Sydney was. There were footsteps moving through the flat before she heard a door shutting and then silence, Roxanne hoped that she was left alone in the flat and not with Sydney in there too, she wasn't sure what she would say to him if she saw him.

Roxanne took a deep breath as she quickly walked over to the chest of drawers that Jason had taken his own clothes from, deciding to borrow some of Jason's until she could get home to get her own.  
She grabbed for a T-shirt and some jogging bottoms before slipping them on quickly. She hung the towel on one of the hooks of the chest of drawers not sure what else to do with it,

She took a seat on the edge of the bed as she thought about what else to do and trying to ignore the nausea going through her, a reminder of just how much she drank the night before, she wanted nothing more than to either sleep it off or wait until she could stand the idea of food and eat everything she could get.

The shutting of the front door interrupted her thoughts and she looked up at the bedroom door, waiting for Jason to come in and kick her out of his flat. He walked into the room followed quickly by Winston, who looked at Roxanne, as though checking that she was still there, before curling up on the floor next to the bed and going to sleep.

"I've got to get going now," Jason told her, seeming almost nervous as well as a bit awkward, Roxanne understood why he was feeling that way, after all what do you say to someone you're trying to politely kick out of your house. "I don't think I can make Sydney wait around for me outside for long."

"It's alright, I'll just quickly grab my things," Roxanne stated as she made to stand, she had noticed that her wand was on the nightstand next to where she had slept.

"You don't have to leave," Jason told her honestly, "You can stay here if you want?"

"Whilst you go to practice?" Roxanne asked, surprised at his words as she wrapped her arms around her herself and looked at him. "You'd leave me alone in your flat?"

"Yeah, why, are you planning on taking something?" Jason asked with his eyebrows raised at her.

"I don't plan to," Roxanne told him with a hint of a smile.

"Good, Winston can be very protective of his things." Jason said, nodding down at the British Bulldog that was lying in the middle of the floor and sleeping, his legs twitching slightly as though he were running in his dream.

"He looks positively frightening," Roxanne deadpanned as she looked down at the dog.

"Looks can be deceiving." Jason told her, their eyes meeting. Roxanne felt like her stomach was turning to goo with the way that he was looking at her, but she couldn't look away from him.

Jason shook his head slightly as he jutted his thumb towards the door, "I should get going before Sydney comes in here to drag me out. If Winston starts getting annoying or is too much for you, just give him his toy, it's somewhere in one of these rooms, he loves that thing. It'll calm him right down, squeaks like a motherfucker so it'll probably drive you insane. But, yeah, have fun. I'll be back in a few hours, if you're still here. If not, can you just make sure that the bathroom door is shut? I don't want Winston getting in there and eating the toothpaste again, otherwise you'll be the one coming over to wash him."

Roxanne gave a laugh at Jason's words, "I'll remember to shut the bathroom door. Have fun in your training."

"I would much rather be here with you." Jason admitted, Roxanne felt her face heating up at his words.

"You better get going." Roxanne told him quickly.

Jason nodded before walking out of the room, throwing another look at her over his shoulder before he left. Roxanne looked at the bedroom door for a while as the fact that she had been left alone in Jason's flat, washed over her, he must really trust her to be here alone. She would never leave someone alone in her flat, especially someone on an opposing team, especially if it were a Wasp, what was stopping her from tampering with things or destroying things apart from the fact that she wasn't that kind of girl?

Roxanne took a deep breath as she decided to find her way to the kitchen and see if he had any coffee in the flat, she was feeling quite tired and wanted to wake herself up a bit more.

~~~~

Roxanne walked slowly around Jason's flat, a cup of coffee in her hands that she was sipping at as she glanced around her. She was amazed at the kind of things that Jason had in his flat, various awards and certificates adorned one wall in the front room, the awards on the shelves whilst the certificates and various pictures of his team were hanging on the wall. As she looked at the pictures she noticed that one right in the centre was a lot different than the others surrounding it, she neared it curiously and saw that it contained a young boy, whom she realised was Jason, and an older man that she assumed was his father.

She gave a warm smile as she saw the proud look in the man's eyes as he turned to look at his grinning son. She wondered what kind of a man Jason's dad was.

She moved away from the wall and walked over to the sofa that was sitting in the middle of the room, sitting down on the sofa, she placed her cup on the table before leaning back into the sofa, Winston jumped up and sat next to her. Roxanne scratched him behind the ears as she looked down at him.

She stifled a yawn as she leant her head back on the sofa and looked up at the ceiling, she really needed to leave, she had things to do and she needed to see if she had to do any damage control over the night before, but she couldn't bring herself to get up off of the sofa, mainly because it required too much energy that she didn't have. Roxanne shuffled in her seat before moving so that she was lying down on the sofa, her head resting on the pillow just next to the arm of the chair, Winston moved to lie down next to her and Roxanne went back to scratching behind his ears.

"Maybe a little nap won't hurt, will it Winston?" she asked the dog, who yawned in response. "Just make sure you wake me up in about an hour's time,"

The dog ignored her words, but moved his head so that it was lying on her arm, she was amazed just how friendly Jason's dog was, he didn't even know Roxanne and yet here he was acting like he had known her his whole life. Roxanne smiled down at Winston before she closed her eyes.

~~

To say that Jason was distracted for most of the day would be an understatement, he couldn't help that his mind would drift back to Roxanne, wondering what she was doing, if she was still at his place or not, when he would next see her. He very nearly paid for being so distracted when a Bludger was close to hitting him in the face and breaking his nose, thankfully the side of his head had taken most of the hit from the Bludger, causing him to need to see the Healer and making sure he wasn't suffering from concussion. He wasn't concussed, thankfully, the side of his head was just very sore and he knew that it would bruise along the side of his face and along his jaw line as it already hurt to move it much.

As he brought his hand up to touch the tender part of his face, he walked into the front room, wondering where Winston had got to, noticing on his way passed the bathroom that Roxanne hadn't closed the door like he had asked her to. Jason repressed a groan as he tried not to imagine just what state he was going to find the house.

He glanced over at the sofa and had to stop in his surprise at seeing Roxanne asleep on it, with Winston lying on her legs as he looked at Jason. Jason let out a small laugh and a shake of his head as he let his hand fall from where it was touching his face, he walked quietly over to the sofa and scratched Winston behind the ears, hoping that Winston moving wouldn't wake up the young woman, but he noticed that Roxanne seemed oblivious to the world around her.

Jason pulled the wand out of his pocket and summoned a blanket from his bedroom, he didn't have the heart to wake up Roxanne, and in all honesty he didn't want to have her wake up and leave. Jason caught the blanket as it flew over to him and he placed it gently over Roxanne, making sure to not cover Winston with it.

"You seem to really like her," Jason whispered as he crouched down to pet Winston again, Winston licked him in the face in response, Jason wiped his face with his hand but amusement filled his face. "I hope that you've been looking after her, I like having her around."  
Winston blinked at Jason before laying his head back down on Roxanne's legs. Jason turned to look at Roxanne, who was sleeping soundly. Jason couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he watched her.

"I like her a lot."


	7. A Mistake

Roxanne opened her eyes slowly as she pulled the blanket towards her and let out a small yawn. Blinking around her, she noticed that she was still in Jason's front room and was lying on his sofa, she also noticed that she was holding onto a blanket that she had definitely not put on herself before, which meant one of two things, either Winston was extremely clever and had put the cover over her himself, or Jason had come back and had done it. This thought made Roxanne wake up and caused her to sit up, she looked around the room and noticed that she was alone in it.

She looked over at the clock that was on a shelf not that far from her, noticing that it said that it was six o'clock at night, how was it six already? She felt like she had only just gone to sleep, when in fact she had been asleep for hours without even meaning to.

She didn't have long to dwell on this fact when she heard a door opening and Jason's voice saying, "Bloody hell, Winston, just wait a minute."

Roxanne wrapped the blanket around herself as she looked over to the front room door as it opened and Winston ran into the room, before bounding over to Roxanne and jumping onto the sofa next to where she was sitting.

Jason came into the room as he hissed, "Winston, stop it, she's… not asleep anymore." He faltered as he noticed that she was awake.

Roxanne stroked Winston behind the ears as she looked down at the dog, who was still wearing his dog lead, not sure what she was going to say to Jason.

"I hope we didn't wake you," Jason said as he walked over to place something on the coffee table in front of her, when she finally looked up she noticed that it was a pizza box.

"No, I was already awake." She told him, looking up at him with a small smile. She noticed that his hair was wet and he was in a different set of clothes than what he had left wearing, he had obviously showered and changed since his practice. "How was practice?"

Jason shrugged, "it was practice, I'm feeling pretty tired," he told her as he stood away from her and was watching her, he seemed almost hesitant about something.

"I'll just go and get my things and then I'll be gone." Roxanne told Jason, as she stopped scratching Winston behind the ears and standing up. Winston let out a small whimper as she began to walk away from him.

"You don't have to," Jason said taking hold of her arm gently and stopping her from walking out of the room. "You can stay if you want? I've got us some pizza, I wasn't sure if you had eaten anything today."

Roxanne looked up at him, feeling the warmth that his hand brought filling her body. She knew that she should say no, that she should leave whilst she could, she shouldn't be here with him, she shouldn't have drunk with him yesterday, if anyone found out it could cause a lot of trouble for them both, there was a reason their teams weren't allowed to be alone together.

"I mean… if you go Winston will be sad, he's really warmed up to you and he doesn't tend to like anyone."

"Really?" Roxanne asked him in surprise.

"Well, he likes everyone, he's quite loving actually. But he's never slept on a sofa with anyone but you."

"Do you have many people sleeping on your sofa?"

"Just Sydney if we've had a few too many drinks." Jason told her, "Winston won't sleep on the sofa with him."

"I feel honoured," Roxanne said with a laugh, noticing that Jason still had hold of her arm and that he was absent-mindedly rubbing his thumb across her skin.

"You should, Winston seems to really want you to be around. He rushed in here to see you before I could even get his lead off of him."

As if on cue, Winston jumped off of the sofa and walked over to Roxanne, sitting at her feet and nudging her leg with his head as he looked up at her. Roxanne looked down at him and smiled as she patted him on the head, causing Jason to let go of her arm.

"Well, if it's what Winston wants I can stay for a while," Roxanne told him as she took the lead off of Winston and handed it to Jason. "But I can't stay for long; I've got to get home tonight."  
Maybe see if the papers are doing any damage yet, she added in her head, knowing that if the papers got any hint of this then it would be splashed all across their gossip pages. But she could ignore the potential damage that may be out there for a while, after all Jason hadn't said anything about papers so maybe nothing was in there? She knew that either way she would need to be very careful when leaving this building.

"Winston would love that," Jason said as he began to move towards the front room door, the lead still in his hand, "Did you want a drink?"

"Yeah, I'll have some soda if you've got any?" Roxanne asked as she began to walk back over to the sofa and sat back down on it, pulling the blanket over her legs, Winston followed her quickly.

"I should have some somewhere?" he told her before he left the room. It wasn't long until he came back into the room; the lead was gone and in his hands was two glasses of red liquid.

"It's strawberry, I hope you don't mind." he told her as he handed her the drink and took a seat on the sofa, Winston was laying between the two of them, his head resting on Roxanne's lap.

"I like strawberry," Roxanne told him with a smile as she took a sip of the drink and placed the glass down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Pizza?" Jason asked as he grabbed for the pizza box and opened the lid, offering her some, she took it with a "thank you," before taking a bite. She withheld the groan from the taste of the food, It felt like heaven, the best part of a hangover was stuffing yourself with food the next day in her opinion and this pizza was going down a treat.

"Last night was really fun; we should do it again some time." Jason said after a few moments of silence. Roxanne turned to look at him as she continued chewing her food, she swallowed before answering him.

"Drinking is always fun," Roxanne told him, "Although I could definitely drink both you and Sydney under the table."

"Didn't seem that way last night," Jason said with a smirk at her, "In fact, it seemed like I was winning."

"And if by winning you mean losing horribly, then I'll agree with you."

"Oh, I can definitely say that I won and not just at the club."

Roxanne knew what he was talking about, it was all that her thoughts kept going to, the feel of his lips on her, the way his hair felt when she ran her hands through it. As she looked at him she wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on hers again and as Jason inched closer to her she knew that he felt the same way.

"I need to go," Roxanne told him as she moved away from him and stood up. Jason seemed confused as he turned to look at her, before he nodded and stood up so that he could help her get her things.

"I would say that we should do this again, but I'm not sure what that's implying." Jason stated simply, seeming a bit shy and unsure what to do.

Roxanne smiled at him as she grabbed for her things, unsure what she even had here and wondering if she should get changed into her clothes from the night before.

"Don't worry about getting changed again; just send back the clothes you're wearing whenever you get the chance." Jason told her with a small shrug. Roxanne nodded before she walked over to the front door and opening it, she turned back around to give Jason an awkward nod of her head before walking down the corridor, not caring that she didn't have shoes on.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, she had been happy to be around Jason, but suddenly she felt like she needed to run, that it was getting too much. She put it down to the guilt she was feeling at going behind her teams back and seeing a 'rival' and the guilt that if found out she would be in serious trouble.

But why was it becoming difficult to keep herself moving and not go rushing back to Jasons's flat.

Roxanne looked around the deserted staircase, it had taken her a few attempts at pushing locked doors to find the right one that lead to the stairs, before waving her wand and disapparating.

When she arrived home, she threw the clothes she was carrying into the clothes hamper in the bathroom and her high heels in front of it, telling herself that she would deal with it later on. Before walking into her front room and over to the kitchen area that was attached to it and making herself a drink as she tried not to think of Jason.

He hated how much he had begun invading her thoughts, hated that she had stayed drinking with him last night instead of going home with Violet and Shawn. But that kiss had been good, that kiss had made it all worthwhile, but she knew it couldn't happen again. Jason was obviously playing some kind of game with her, he had been pursuing her and using cheesy lines on her and she had fallen for his trap even though she had told herself she wouldn't. Roxanne let out another groan at her own stupidity for letting Jason begin getting under her skin before walking back into her front room.

With a glass of juice in her hand, she walked over to her sofa and took a seat on it. She placed her drink down on the coffee table in front of her before slouching back on her sofa and running a hand over her tired face as she debated whether or not to have a bath now or later on, she needed to use a different shampoo and conditioner on her hair, not liking the way it had dried from using Jasons. If she was going to be there more often he would need to get a different one, one that was more suited for her hair type.

Roxanne stilled at her thoughts, why was she thinking of going back to Jasons? She couldn't – shouldn't- be thinking like that, she couldn't see Jason. She had to stop whatever this was now.

~~

"Roxanne, thank god you're here." Violet stated as she made her way over to Roxanne who had just walked into the room with a bag slung over her shoulder.

Roxanne gave her friend and teammate a smile before dropping the bag in front of her locker and opening it so that she could put her things into it. She had changed into comfortable clothes before she left her home ready for the start of her training, Roxanne dug into her bag to grab her bottle of water before closing the door of the locker and turning to face her friend, who seemed a bit on edge.

"What's up, Violet?" Roxanne asked in concern.

Violet grabbed for Roxannes free hand before pulling her through the changing room and over to the other side of it and towards the gym area, where Roxanne needed to go anyway to begin her training. They entered the room and Roxanne noted that it was empty, others must be on the pitch already or not here yet. Roxanne began to do her usual stretches as Violet began to tell her what had gotten her so worked up.

"Do you remember that weird guy at the club other night?" She asked her, "the one that caused me to leave because I was feeling uncomfortable?"

"Yeah," Roxanne stated with a small frown.

"Well, coach called me into his office this morning to say that I'd had a large bouquet of flowers delivered here yesterday. They are huge Roxanne, it looks like it must have cost a lot of money, when I read the card I realised that it was from the creepy guy yesterday. Do you think that I should be worried?"

"I'm not sure. I suppose it's easy to send flowers to you as we're known in the papers, so it's not hard to find out what Quidditch team we play for. If he does more than that I would be worried, I think maybe you should keep an eye out and make sure that he's not hanging around the club." Roxanne told her, still stretching her arms.

"You're right, if he managed to get the flowers here he could hang around. I would send the flowers back to him with a note to say to leave me alone, in a nice way, of course, but the guy didn't leave an address or anything and I'm not going to go searching for him. He really creeped me out last night and if I never have to see him again that'll be fine by me."

"What are you going to do with the flowers?" Roxanne asked as she got down on the floor and in the position to begin her push ups, Violet took a seat on the floor next to where Roxanne was exercising.

"I asked coach if he could get someone to anonymously donate them to St Mungos to cheer up some of the patients. Seriously, what was I meant to do with those flowers?"

"Just be glad that they were sent here and that they weren't sent to your home, let's hope that if you ignore him that he'll just go away."

"That's what I was thankful for as well, I don't know what I would do if he found out where I lived. But you're right, if I ignore him, he'll hopefully go away." Violet stated as she pushed her hands through her hair and looked back at Roxanne, who was still doing press ups.

"I think that's a good idea, I would have a word with Coach as well, so that he's aware of the guy and can get people to keep an eye out for him."

Violet nodded, "I'll have words with him after training. Now we'll talk about you, what happened the other night after I left with Shawn?"

Roxanne stopped mid press up and looked at her before glancing around the room quickly, she waited a few seconds before answering.

"A drunken mistake."

Violet let out a gasp at her words, "Roxanne, you didn't sleep with him did you?" She asked in a whisper.

Roxanne shook her head, "No, he stopped it before it could get to that."

"He stopped it?" Violet asked in shock,

"Yep, we ended up just kissing and I woke up the next morning in his bed. I honestly thought that I was at home, I can't believe I let myself get drunk enough to let that happen." Roxanne stated to her, before she stopped doing push ups and instead rested on her elbows and toes and kept her body straight.

"How was it?" Violet asked before she could stop herself. Roxanne turned to face her with a smirk on her face.

"The kiss? Amazing." She told her honestly.

Violet let out a small laugh, "You're going to be in trouble if anyone finds out."

"I know," Roxanne admitted, still glad that they were both the only two in the room. "I'm so glad that nothing was mentioned in the Prophet, I dread to think what would happen if someone got wind of this? I can't believe I was stupid enough to stay drinking with him and to go back home with him." Roxanne shook her head as she let herself drop to the floor so that she was lying with her head on her arms as she rested for a moment.

"He seems like the kind of guy that gets what he wants when he sets his mind to it." Violet admitted.

"Tell me about it, I just wish that I didn't let it affect me this much."

"You want it to happen?"

"I don't know what I want?" Roxanne admitted as she pushed herself up off of the floor and began to stretch. "I know I'm stupid for even thinking of the possibility of seeing him again, mainly because there's a very high chance that he's just after one thing and the added fact that it would have big consequences here if I pursued anything."

"That is right. Maybe it's best to avoid him from now on?"

"That's what I'm going to try and do. I need to take him back his things that he lent me so that I could get home, but after I've dropped them off I'm going to make it clear that that's it, nothing more will be going on."

Violet nodded at her words as she stood up, watching as Roxanne picked up some weights off of the side and began to lift them. "Do you think that he'll let you go that easily?"

"I hope so, I can resist him, as long as there's no alcohol around to impair my judgement of course." Roxanne stated with a smile.

"And as long as he doesn't kiss you." Violet stated with a laugh herself as she began to walk towards the door that would lead back into the changing room. "I'll see you out on the pitch, if I don't go now someone will come in and find me."

Roxanne said goodbye to her as she continued to lift the weights, it was a usual part of her training to be in here working on her upper body strength, it enabled her to hit the Bludgers harder and further. Most, if not all of the professional Beaters would incorporate weight lifting into their training and the result was some very impressive arms.

Her thoughts flickered to Jason's arms, remembering the feel of them under her fingers when she was kissing him. This thought caused her to drop the weights that were in her hands, sending them crashing to the floor and causing her to jump at the noise and the fear of them falling onto her toes. Thankfully, her toes were safe from being crushed.

She needed to get Jason out of her mind, she was beginning to not be able to concentrate on anything else when the kiss they shared was constantly running through her mind. She needed to give Jason his things back and tell him that yesterday was the end of everything. That he needed to stop pursuing her, it all needed to stop.

She just wished that she believed those words herself.


	8. The Problem With Fred

She knew that coming back would be a mistake. That she was playing a dangerous game by being seen in enemy territory.

It was different this time as it had been before, the last time she was drunk, that was what had hindered her willpower. Made her more willing to give into her body's wants and desires, made her more susceptible to Jasons charms.

But this time she wouldn't let her guard down. She wouldn't let Jasons smooth words affect her, wouldn't be affected by his touch, the small smirk on his face, the way he looked at her, making her weak at the knees, even though she would never admit it to him.

She ran a hand over her face and up through her hair, still damp from her shower after training. She berated herself for being weak around Jason, for letting herself get weak around him. He had managed to get to her, something he told her he would, and he had done it so easily and with such skill that Roxanne didn't see it coming. She knew that this had to be part of his charm, part of the way that made him how he was and she knew that she had to cut herself free from it. He was invading her thoughts, invading her dreams and she knew that it needed to stop. She couldn't face all these distractions, not at this crucial time in her career.

Roxanne peered around the corner, staring at the door which she knew was the entrance to Jasons place. She knew that she would have to do this soon, it wouldn't be long before someone came along and caught her and she didn't want to be caught here. In all honesty, she was surprised that there hadn't been an article in the paper about them yet. The paparazzi was shit hot on any kind of rumour to do with the teams of England, they would do anything for a story. So that fact that her and Jason's moment at the club and both of them leaving together not even reached the paper, made her uneasy. She knew that it was only a matter of time before someone slipped up and it was nationwide news.

Even though all this had been running through her head, constantly it seemed, he still couldn't make herself leave, couldn't force herself to just send the clothes back to Jason in a parcel.

She gave a sigh as she hissed at herself, "Just do it, knock and get it over with." She was already coming up with excuses on how to decline Jason's invitation inside when she did eventually knock, hoping that it would at least sound feasible. "Sorry, I can't come inside, I promised I would go to my parents for dinner and they're expecting me."

She took another breath and stood up from the wall, muttering her excuse under her breath, wanting to get it perfect.  
She lifted a hand and rapped on the door sharply, looking around her to see if anyone was looking out of their door at her. They weren't.

There was no sound from the other side of the door, not even a bark from Winston. Roxanne knocked again, this time louder, as she looked down at the bag in her other hand. It had the borrowed clothes, freshly washed, dried and folded. She wondered where Jason was and why he wasn't answering her.

Not knowing what else to do, Roxanne left the bag on the floor in front of the door. Hoping that Jason would know that she was thankful for his help in lending them to her. She would have left a note, but had no paper or pen.

Now that Jason wasn't in, she didn't know what to actually do with herself. Trying to shake the feeling of disappointment away, she walked down the hallway, glancing back to see if he had come to the door. He hadn't.

She knew that she would have gone into Jason's if he had invited her in, knowing that there would be no way she could say her excuse and walk away from him. He had some kind of magnetic pull to him, that she had trouble resisting. A pull she knew she didn't want to resist.

Maybe she should actually go and see her parents?

Roxanne let herself into her parents' house, thankful that they didn't mind that she would just walk in uninvited.

"Hello?" She called out, closing the door behind her and walking further into the hallway. She heard the sounds of footsteps coming towards her from the kitchen and she turned in time to see her three year old nephew running towards her.

"Aunt Roxie," he called loudly in excitement. His arms spread wide and a toothless grin spreading across his face as he neared her. Roxanne gave a grin herself as she picked her nephew up and hugged him tightly.

"Lee, I didn't know that you were here." She said, kissing him on the side of the face, causing him to chuckle at her. Which escalated to loud laughs as Roxanne began to tickle him in the side, where she knew that he was most ticklish.

"Aunt Roxie, stop." Lee giggled loudly, barely able to get the words out through his laughs. He squirmed in her arms and in the end she had no choice but to stop tickling him and putting him back onto the floor. She was worried that she would accidentally drop him.

"Where's Nan and Granddad?" Roxanne asked Lee. Lee grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the kitchen.

"In here with Daddy."

Roxanne entered the kitchen to see that her brother was sitting at the table with her father, her mother standing at the kitchen counter. She gave everyone a smile as she entered the room.

"Roxanne," Fred stated as he nodded his head in greeting at his sister. Roxanne gave him a smile in return as she took a seat at the table.

"Fred, I didn't know that you would be here today and with Lee. I'm surprised that Leanne let you have him for the day."

"I was as surprised as you, but she owled me last night, asking if I wanted to have him and I couldn't pass up the oppourtunity. I thought that mum and dad would like to see him as well."

"Thanks for sending me an invite." Roxanne muttered to him.

Fred rolled his eyes at his sister's words, "I didn't know if you were free."

"You didn't even try and find out if I was free." Roxanne stated, her arms folded across her chest.

"Children, behave yourself."

"You're normally too busy with training," Fred shrugged.

They heard their mother tut from next to them, "Honestly, you're both in your twenties. I would have thought that you would have grown out of your bickering."

"Not likely mum, it's how Rox and I communicate with each other." Fred said, turning to give his sister a wink,

Roxanne gave him a tight smile.

"Are you staying for dinner as well, darling." George asked his daughter, who nodded.

"If that's alright with you all," Roxanne said.

"Of course it is, darling." Angelina said, placing a kiss on the top of her daughters head before walking back over to the kitchen counter, picking up a clean glass so that she could make Roxanne a drink.

Roxanne watched as her nephew, rushed back over to her father. George lifted him up and sat him on his lap, so that Lee could continue his colouring.

"So, have you heard anymore from that nice man who left those flowers for you at your match?" Angelina asked her daughter. Roxanne stilled at her words and glanced up at her mother. Her eyes flickering to her dad as though gageing his reaction, a frown had begun to cross his face.

"Mum, we're not allowed to be seen together. He plays for the Wimbourne Wasps."

"If Roxanne wants to keep her promising career, she'll know to avoid him." George stated. "There's a ban for a reason."

"I know that, it's just that he sent you some really nice flowers." Angelina stated.

"He may have just been trying to get in her knickers." Fred muttered. Roxanne clenched her fists tightly, she wasn't going to let him get a rise out of her though.

"Fred, I will not accept talk like that at the table." Angelina scolded her son, before turning to look at Roxanne. "I was just saying, that if he had a separate agenda, he wouldn't have gone to so much trouble."

"It's Jason Turner, of course he would have, he's well known in the papers for it." Roxanne stated before she could stop herself. She knew that Jason had told her not to believe everything she had read in the paper about him. But it was a better alternative than thinking about the fact that his feelings are actually real.

"Roxanne, I have seen him watching every match that you play. He may be hidden at the back and trying to make himself unseen. But the way I've seen him look at you, it's the same look that I catch your father looking at me with." Angelina stated, her hand on Roxannes as she gave her a warm smile.

"Fear? Because I give you that look daily." George stated, a grin on his face. Angelina rolled her eyes at her husbands comment.

"I just think that maybe you should give this guy a chance, he seems like he wants to get to know you better."

"I think he wants to make himself very familiar with every part of Roxanne," Fred stated. Roxanne turned to glare at her brother.

"What exactly are you implying, Fred?" Roxanne said through gritted teeth.

"I'm implying that you're playing right into Turners hands and giving him exactly what he wants from you. Men like that are only after one thing and one thing only. She doesn't care that there's a ban between both of their teams from seeing each other. Knowing Roxxie though, she's already broken that rule many, many times." Fred said, a wicked smirk on his face. "Although he's getting what he wants if you keep going back to him."

Roxanne glared at him, clenching her fist as she felt herself getting angier. Her brother knew what he was implying. He wanted to get a rise out of her, he wanted to annoy her and he was succeeding.

"Fred, that's enough out of you." Roxanne heard her father say angrily. "Apologise to your sister."

"How's Albus, Fred?" Roxanne stated, her eyebrows raising at him as she struggled to keep the anger out of her voice. "Stolen any more of his girlfriends, or was the fact that you very nearly destroyed him taking just the one, enough for you?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Fred growled, getting annoyed himself.

"Both of you stop this right now." Angelina snapped at her children. The authoritive tone in her voice telling them that they better listen to her or there will be severe consequences.

"What on earth makes you think that there is anything going on between me and Turner?" Roxanne seethed, ignoring her mother's voice. "What also makes you think that you have the right to even have an opinion on it?"

"I was at the club that night that you were draping yourself all over him. It was pathetic, you seemed desperate. I expected you to act better than one of those common tarts that are always sniffing around him. Don't you know that you're playing right into his trap?" Fred stated.

"You can shut your face, you have no idea what you're even talking about." Roxanne stood up so quickly that the chair she was sitting on fell to the floor behind her. "Plus, you would know all about common tarts wouldn't you?"

"You need to open your eyes. He's clearing trying to distract you, he's going to use you so that his team can win. Why else would he be so interested in you?" Fred stated angrily.

Roxanne fumed, her fists clenching again as she struggled to not hit him.

"You have a problem, Fred. A real fucking problem." Roxanne snapped, deciding to walk away from the situation instead of continuing to fight with her nephew there. He didn't need to see this. "No wonder no one in this family actually fucking likes you."

"Roxanne..." Angelina stated walking after her daughter quickly, to try and get her to stop leaving.

"No, Mum. I can't be around him right now, otherwise I will hurt him."

She stormed out of the house before anyone else could call her back. Apparating as quickly as she could away from the house, away from Fred.

Roxanne apparated to her Grandparents' house. She knew that neither of them would be in, but she wasn't planning on going inside.

She was heading instead, to the makeshift Quidditch pitch that wasn't that far from the garden. She needed to blow off steam, she needed to hit something. Wrenching the door open of the shed, she reached in and grabbed the Beaters bat and a bag of tennis balls on a shelf. Then began walking further onto the 'pitch'.

She looked down at the Beaters bat in her hand, throwing it into the air so that it spun and catching it with ease, dropping the bag from her other hand to the floor. She stopped spinning the bat in the air and held it normally, reaching down to grab a ball and quickly throwing it in the air. Imagining it as Fred's head she swung the bat around as hard as she could. Relishing the crack that resonated around her at the sound of the bat hitting the ball.

She let out a deep, annoyed breath as she picked up another tennis ball. She sensed someone had arrived and was walking towards her.

"How did you know that I would be here?" Roxanne asked, not turning around, but knowing exactly who had followed her.

"I had a feeling that this would be where you are, I knew that you would need to blow off steam and this is how you would normally do it."

Roxanne threw a tennis ball into the air and hit it as hard as she could with the bat in her hands. A crack filled the air and it sailed quickly across the garden and out of sight. Roxanne gave a sniff as she wiped her forehead with her arm, before bending down to pick up another tennis ball from the bag.

"Fred is a jerk," Roxanne stated. She clenched her hand tightly around the tennis ball, before throwing it in the air and swinging the bat around as hard as she could. The tennis ball connected again and sailed through the air. This would be the closest she could get to actually hurting her brother. It was making her feel better.

"I'm not denying that, your mother and I have had a serious word with him about his behaviour. Whether it falls on deaf ears is another thing all together." George stated, walking towards his daughter and picking up the bag of tennis balls. Roxanne turned to look at him, seeing that he had brought one out of the bag and was throwing it and catching it with one hand, as he backed up a few steps. Roxanne shifted so that she was facing him head on and prepared her bat to hit the ball when he threw it to her.

"Do you like Jason Turner?" George asked his daughter, reaching into the bag again.

Roxanne was silent for a moment, before shaking her head and preparing herself.

"I don't know, dad." Roxanne admitted out loud, shaking her head, "I really don't know."

"Do you trust him?" George asked his daughter.

"I want to. I really want to." Roxanne faltered, her bat now by her side as she looked down at it. "Dad, what if Fred was right? What if Jason's only interested in me so that he can use that against me?"

Roxanne bit her lip as she felt fear go through her. Fear that he was using her, fear that her brother was right and fear that she was beginning to fall for Jason Turner.

She was met with comforting arms and she wrapped her arms around her father, burying her face into his chest and breathed in the smell of him. She felt his hands smoothing her hair down and she felt herself calming down.

"You need to work out whether you can let yourself go through that?" George stated, "And I think that you're strong enough to deal with whatever decision you make. It's just whether you want to risk the chance that Fred may be true."

"I don't want it to be true," Roxanne stated. "I really don't want it to be true."

"There's only one way to find out, Roxxie." George said softly. "And I'll be here for you if you need me to break his legs."

Roxanne gave a chuckle, "I've already broken his arm, I can handle breaking his legs."

"I know that, Roxxie. But I'd quite happily like to break his legs if he breaks your heart."


	9. Cody McIntyre

"Keep focused, Weasley."

Roxanne snapped out of her thoughts of Jason, not realising that she had begun daydreaming about him again. She couldn't afford to right now, she had a game to play. Jerome flew away from her and Roxanne gripped her hold on the broom and the bat as she searched for a Bludger, zooming through various players, angry at herself for getting so distracted.

_"__Weasley is racing across the pitch, she seems a bit distracted today. She might want to try and keep her thoughts on the match."_

Roxanne sneered at the voice of the commentator, annoyed at his words, but not as annoyed as she was at herself. She hated that she was thinking about Jason, when she should have been focusing her attention on this game.

She spotted a Bludger soaring across the sky above her and gave chase, knowing that her broom was fast enough to get ahead of it. Roxanne flew ahead of the Bludger, which was making its way, just above a stand of spectators and whacked it as hard as she could, it flew back into the middle of the pitch.

_"__The Arrows have lost possession of the Quaffle again. Just what is going on with that team today?, It's like they're all half asleep!"_

Roxanne took a deep breath as her eyes searched the pitch, glancing at the stands she was hovering above and seeing her family in the crowd, waving up at her.

She gave a quick wave back before trying to focus on the game. She couldn't help but frown though that the only people from her family who had made an appearance were her father, mother, Fred and her Godfather Lee. She found it weird that her Uncle Ron wasn't present, he had made it his mission to attend every one of her matches since she had begun playing professionally and so far this is the only one that he was apparently missing. She also found it weird that her brother was in the stands, they hadn't spoken to each other since their argument.

Roxanne tried to not let it bother her as she looked for the Bludger again.

"That's another goal to the Montrose Magpies. Bringing them up to 310-270, I don't know what the Arrows are playing at but they best up their game soon, otherwise they'll be out of the tournament." Roxanne growled as the announcer's voice thundered around the stadium. She knew that she and her team could play better than this, they couldn't go out of the league in this way, it'll just be embarrassing.

"Jerome," Roxanne yelled across the pitch and at her teammate, who was looking for a Bludger. He turned to look at her, awaiting her instructions, knowing that she would have a plan of attack.

"Keep aiming at their Seeker, I'll try and take one of their Chasers out." Roxanne told him, before flying over to a Bludger that was making its way across the pitch. She managed to get to it before the Magpies Beater could and hit it as hard as she could towards Cody McIntyre, who was in possession of the Quaffle and was heading for the Arrows goalposts.

The Bludger just managed to miss his shoulder, but the shock of it nearly hitting him caused him to drop the Quaffle. He glanced up in the direction that it came from and raised his eyebrows at Roxanne, who gave an innocent smile and waved at him. Cody laughed before shooting off and trying to get the Quaffle back from the Arrows. Roxanne searched for her next Bludger and her next victim, although she felt the urge to just continue hitting Bludgers at Cody. He was by far the best Chaser out of the three and was the biggest threat to her team.

Roxanne's eyes searched for a Bludger, dropping in the air slightly to avoid a collision with Violet and Hunter Vankirk, the Seeker for the Montrose Magpies, who were both flying straight towards her, chasing after the snitch.

_"__Addams and Vankirk have seen the Snitch, if the Arrows want to stay in the game they better catch it. Because McIntyre is heading straight for the goals again –"_

Roxanne flew forwards to another Bludger and hit it towards Cody again, it hit him in the arm and caused him to drop the Quaffle, which was once again snatched up by someone on her team. Cody's eyes found her straight away as he rubbed his arm with his other hand, his eyebrows raised at her before he flipped her the bird. Roxanne grinned back at him and Cody seemed to laugh before flying off.

Roxanne heard a Bludger heading towards her, the familiar whistle of it flying threw the air sounding in her ears, and she could tell that it had come from behind her. She turned just in time to hit it with her bat and send it back towards the Montrose Magpies Beater, who just about ducked in time, avoiding being hit in the face with it.

"Come on Violet," Roxanne muttered to herself as she continued flying around the pitch. She was trying to intercept as many Bludgers as she could so that she could send them Cody's way, not wanting him to get the other team ahead by enough points that the Snitch being caught wouldn't even matter. There was no way that Roxanne was letting her team lose the match and be out of the competition.

Roxanne felt relief at the commentators next words, just as she searched for another Bludger to hit.

_"__Addams has caught the snitch! The Appleby Arrows are going through to the next round."_

The stadium erupted and Roxanne punched the air in excitement, she grabbed hold of her nearest teammate and hugged them tightly.

~~~

After they had celebrated in the changing room, the team had decided that they would all go together to the pub in celebration. The Montrose Magpies were apparently going to be joining them, which Roxanne was happy about. They were a very good, friendly team and she did enjoy being around them. Their tension on the pitch would never spill out into their own personal lives, which was why their coaches didn't have any problems with the two teams being around each other unsupervised.

Roxanne had found her family quickly after changing, bypassing a few reporters that she didn't want to talk to. She gave them all hugs, even her brother, although it was a short and tense hug because he had yet to apologise to her for what he had said. Roxanne thought that he was a bastard.

"Where's Uncle Ron?" Roxanne asked them, trying not to let the disappointment show in her voice. She was grateful that he showed up to each and every one of her games and knew that he was allowed to miss a few, but it still made her feel sad.

"We're not sure," Angelina told her daughter, "We're going to The Burrow soon to see if he's there. He didn't have to work today, so we're a little worried as well. But, I'm sure that he'll be fine."

"You done brilliantly out there," Lee said, smiling proudly at his Goddaughter.

"I should have paid a bit more attention, but I'm so thankful that Violet caught the Snitch when she did. I was so worried that we would lose the match." Roxanne told them, avoiding looking at Fred, who she could sense was smirking about the fact that she had been distracted. She didn't want to deal with him at all.

"What are you going to do now?" George asked his daughter.

"We're all heading to the pub with the Magpies, it's to celebrate and commiserate the outcome of the match. It should be fun." Roxanne told him, "You can all come if you want?" she offered.

They all shook their heads at her invitation, "You go have fun, RJ." Lee told her. Her Godfather had called her RJ for as long as she could remember, a shortening of her name Roxanne Jade. "We'll all see you later."

Roxanne smiled at them all, before hugging them all goodbye, managing to avoid Fred this time. She wondered if Fred would ever apologise to her?

~~

"So, I meet the famous Roxanne Weasley."

Roxanne turned around at the voice and saw Cody McIntyre standing behind her, two bottles of mead in his hands. She had arrived at the pub a few minutes ago, taking a seat at the first empty booth that she could fine, planning on finding Violet as soon as she could. Apparently Cody McIntyre had found her first.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked her, indicating the empty seat next to her. Roxanne shook her head and offered him the seat, which he took gratefully, before handing her one of the bottles.

"Thank you, and what do you mean by that?" Roxanne asked him, "You've met me a few times before Cody."

"Ah, we were merely acquaintances back then, now I feel like I know a lot about you."

Roxanne was a little worried about how much information he knew about her. Cody looked around them, as though checking that they wouldn't be overheard, before speaking.

"I am a close friend of Jason's," Cody said, which caused Roxannes eyes to widen slightly. She was worried that he knew all about her staying the night at Jasons, something she hoped would be kept between her, Jason, Sydney and Violet. But apparently that wasn't going to be the case, it wouldn't be long before everything came out about them.

"Hey, don't give me that look," Cody said, noticing the look on Roxanne's face. "He just talks about you a lot, that's all."

"That's all?" She asked unbelievingly, wondering why he didn't know about what happened between them if they were meant to be friends.

"Why?" Cody asked, suspiciously. "Is there more I should be knowing?" He leant forwards, an eager smile on his face.

"No, nothing else." Roxanne said quickly, taking another sip of her drink. She knew that Cody didn't believe her at all. He merely smirked at her and Roxanne was feeling a little unnerved by it, wondering just what he was up to or what he had planned.

"He's really taken with you," Cody told her finally, after staring at each other in silence, daring the other to speak first. Roxanne almost scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm being serious." Cody continued.

"He just wants to get me into bed." Roxanne stated matter of factly.

"Well, there is that as well, I guess. But he does have feelings for you."

Roxanne furrowed her eyebrows as she shifted on her seat, tilting her head to the side slightly as she looked at him. "Why are you telling me this?"

Cody took another sip of his drink before answering her question. "Because I'm his friend and I want to see him happy and you make him happy."

Roxanne didn't feel comfortable with the sincerity in his eyes, she didn't want to deal with those feelings. "There's a ban on our teams being seen together."

"Then don't be seen."

Roxanne sighed, glancing around to make sure that the two were still alone in their conversation. "It's not as easy as that."

"I think it's definitely easy, just don't be seen together. See, simple."

"I'd risk my career."

"Maybe it's worth it?" Cody stated simply, "Although I've noticed that you haven't said no to being with him, that you haven't denied any feelings you may or may not have for him."

Roxanne stared at him again, resisting the urge to cross her arms and glare at him for bringing that up.

"You should definitely give him a chance. He's a decent guy. Ignore all of those stories about him, which are all fake I'll have you know, and get to know him. He's had a lot of shit thrown at him in his life, some of which has stopped him from achieving bigger and better things. But he got through them. Did you know that there's a reason why he's never played for the England Quidditch team, despite the fact that he's been the top Beater in the country since he began playing the sport?"

His response took her by surprise and she was intrigued. She had always wondered why Jason hadn't been snapped up to be on the England team. She remembered the rumours going around that he was going to be signed, but those disappeared quickly. She figured that the team was full and that those were just rumours.

"And why is that?" she asked him.

"That is something you should ask him yourself," Cody told her.

Roxanne shook her head slowly, grabbing for her drink again and downing the rest of it. She didn't understand why he would even bring it up if he wasn't going to tell her the answer.

"Let's stop talking about him," Roxanne told him, glancing around at the others in the pub, no one seemed to be paying them any attention though. She didn't want them to realise what they were talking about, it wouldn't bode well for her at all.

"Fine, we'll talk about something else," Cody said with a small shrug as he played with the label on the bottle in front of him. "Like the fact that you were trying pretty damn hard to get me off of that broom today."

Roxanne felt herself smiling, "What can I say? You were an easy target."

Cody gave a short, amused laugh. "Did you want another drink?" he asked her, standing up. She gave a nod, putting her hand into her pocket and pulling out a few coins, meaning to hand it to Cody, who shook his head at her. "My treat, Weasley. You can get the next one."

She tried to protest, but he had already walked off to the bar, joining a few other members of the two Quidditch Teams, so she settled for looking around the pub that they had filled,trying to find where Violet had gone. Roxanne spotted her sitting next to Shawn in a booth, both of them were sitting close to each other, laughing at each other. Roxanne couldn't help but smile at her two friends, out of everyone on the team those two and Jerome were her closest friends.

"Are you going to the match tomorrow?" Cody said as he sat back in his seat, passing another bottle of mead to Roxanne, who took it with thanks.

Roxanne shook her head at him, the match tomorrow was between the Wimbourne Wasps and the Kenmare Kestrels. "Why would I go to the Wasp's match?"

"Probably something to do with being obsessed with their Beater?"

"I'm not obsessed with him."

Cody held his hands up in defence, "Alright, love him then."

"I don't love him." Roxanne countered.

"Fine – you just want to sleep with him."

Roxanne's mouth fell open, "I do not want to sleep with Jason." She hissed at him quietly.

Cody raised his eyebrows at her, "Not from what I've heard."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I may have had a small conversation with Sydney about your drinking contest."

"Oh God," Roxanne groaned putting her head in her hands. "Oh God, I knew this was going to get around."

"No, not around, just to me. I'm not going to say anything, don't worry." Cody leant forwards and placed a hand on her arm comfortingly. Roxanne peered through her open fingers at him.

"You're not going to blackmail me are you?"

"What kind of guy do you take me for?" Cody asked her, "Of course I wouldn't blackmail you, you don't have anything I want."

Roxanne gave a laugh at his words as she removed her hands from her face and placed them back on the table.

"Is someone being blackmailed?"Jerome asked, sliding into the seat next to Roxanne. The Montrose Keeper, Devon Maddock, slid into the seat next to Cody.

"Are you blackmailing another person, Cody?" Devon asked in a thick Scottish accent.

Cody gave a laugh at his teammate and shook his head. Roxanne felt a little uneasy that they might find out just what they were talking about, but thankfully Cody changed the subject to the match they had just played. She gave him a thankful smile, to which he replied with a wink, before talking to Jerome about his Bludger attacks.

~~

Roxanne had stayed for a few more hours, before she made her way home for a well deserved rest. Her arms and legs were beginning to burn and she was feeling elated with the effects of the alcohol and the win that her team had gotten. She opened the door to her flat and let out a relieved sigh, wanting nothing more than to have a nice long bath, hoping to soak away the tension and ache of her muscles.

She walked towards her front room, kicking off her shoes as she went and pulling her hair out of its ponytail. She was running her hand through her curly hair when an owl caught her attention. It was her Grandparents owl, which was watching her carefully, it's head inclined to the side.

Roxanne gave a frown as she walked over to the owl, which had flown in through her open window, and took the note that was by its feet. She glanced down at the note and felt an icy coldness fill her with dread.

_You're needed at The Burrow. It's urgent Roxanne. Dad_

She rushed from the room, grabbing her wand out of her pocket as she made her way back to the front door in a rush as her dads few words filled her brain. His letters would never be that short or abrupt, he would always end the letter with either lots of kisses or some kind of joke, this had to be something serious and her brain could only think that it was something horrible. Especially because her dad had used her Grandparents Owl to send the message.

She stuffed her feet back into her shoes, not caring that they weren't on properly as she left the flat and walked down the stairs to get to the ground floor, not having the patience to wait for the lift to arrive.

Once she had made it outside, she moved to a secure location before apparating to her Grandparents house.

~~

Roxanne glanced at everyone in the front room as she entered. She noticed the red around their eyes, the tears on some of their worry filled faces. Something had happened.

"What's-" Roxanne began, feeling panic beginning to fill her. Although she felt relief when she saw that both of her Grandparents were in the room, she had been so worried that something had happened to both of them. But what else could it be? And why were only half of her family here? Where were the rest of her cousins?

"Roxanne, take a seat, please." Her Uncle Harry said with tears in his eyes, Roxanne felt her heart clenching. She had never seen her Uncle cry, had never seen the look on his face that he was adopting now and it was beginning to strike fear into her heart.

"What's going on?" Roxanne asked, taking a seat next to her brother Fred, who took hold of her hand tightly. She was too worried about what was happening to yell at Fred to get away from her.

Harry took a deep breath before running a hand over his face as he struggled to keep his composure. "It's James."

Roxanne's head started to swim, she felt like all the air had left her lungs at those words. "What happened?" Roxanne asked, her throat feeling thick as her eyes began to burn.

"He's gone missing," Harry told her. "The Ministry is involved."

Roxanne looked away from Harry, it was too hard looking at him trying to be strong when she knew he was falling apart inside. How could James be missing? Where could he have gone? She didn't realise she had asked these out loud until Harry answered her.

"We think it has something to do with his job."

Roxanne nodded slowly, gripping Fred's hand tightly, thankful for him being there. They all knew that James's job was incredibly dangerous and very secretive. None of them knew what he actually did for a living, all they knew was that it was something in the Ministry, rumours were going around that he was an Unspeakable. All Roxanne knew was that during the times she ever saw James he was sporting a new injury or bruise, but she knew better than to ask. Knew he wouldn't tell her anything anyway.

"We're getting everyone in the Auror department onto this, we've got a lot of the Ministry involved. We will find him." Harry's voice was sharp and final, looking around the room as though daring the others to disagree with him. No one did.

"Has anyone tried to contact his friends? Maybe Abigail or William? I know they used to be close back at school," Lily asked from across the room. Roxanne looked up and noticed for the first time that she was sitting next to her mother, scanning the room she realised that Albus wasn't present. He wouldn't be if Fred was here. Roxanne made a mental note to go and check on her cousin, knowing that something like this could push him back to the way that he was, she couldn't let that happen to him again.

Ginny shook her head as she smoothed down her daughters red hair before answering sadly. "Abigail and James haven't spoken in years and no one knows where William even is."

"What can we do?" Roxanne asked them all, clearing her throat to try and ease the thickness and blinking away the tears that were threatening to fall. James was strong, wherever James was she knew that he would come back. He had to.

"There's nothing we can do," Fred said from next to her, "The Ministry are getting their best men on the job, all we can do is sit and wait for news. Just keep an eye out and check any places that we may know he's gone to."

"How do we even know that he's gone missing? He's been known to vanish on the odd occasion for a few weeks at a time." Roxanne stated, hoping that this was just one of those times and they were all just overreacting.

Harry's jaw tightened and he shook his head at her words, Roxanne heard her Aunt Ginny letting out a sob.

"This was different, we found blood in his apartment. It's looking like someone took him."

"We'll find him," Ron stated firmly. "We're going to find him."

Roxanne nodded numbly. What had her cousin gotten himself into?


	10. Missing James

"Has there been any news yet?" Roxanne asked softly, looking over at her cousin, who was staring down at her hands.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Lily told her sadly, she gave a sniff and ran a hand over her face.

Roxanne felt useless, not knowing what to do, or how to even begin helping her family. She was also trying to be strong for them all and not letting herself fall apart, but it was becoming difficult. Her heart was in her throat most of the time, any time she or Lily were sent letters, anytime she listened to the news on the radio, any time she scanned the Daily Prophet. And if this was what she was feeling she hated to think what her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny were feeling, or Albus and Lily.

Lily had been staying with Roxanne since they found out a few days ago, she had hidden herself away in Roxannes apartment, not wanting to see anyone. Albus had been the same, wanting nothing more than to hide away from the world. When Roxanne had gone around to see him with Lily, he was silent, not wanting to talk about it. Roxanne knew that it was eating him up inside, that he was struggling not to go straight back to the bottle, which was hard as he worked in a pub and lived above it.

Bethany had told Roxanne that even she was finding it hard to get him to open up about it. They had both sat together in the front room, whilst Lily had gone straight to Albus and Bethany's bedroom to talk with Albus.

The only time that Roxanne had left Lily was when she had to go to training, like this morning, but she hadn't been able to focus all of her attention. She had informed her Coach about James, so she didn't get reprimanded as much as she would have, he had even given her the option to leave early to be with her family.

So here she was hours later, sitting with Lily and hoping that there was going to be some sort of news, but it looked unlikely.

"I can't just sit here, I need to go out," Lily stated, causing Roxanne to look up at her. Roxanne let her eyes flicker over her cousins tired and pale face, she looked so much like James.

"Sure, where do you want to go?" Roxanne asked her, coughing slightly so that she wouldn't start crying again.

"I'm hungry, let's go and get some food. We'll go to that restaurant you like." Lily stated slowly, standing up as she ran a hand through her tangled red hair.

"That's fine, let me just get my shoes on." Roxanne agreed standing up herself.  
Lily nodded as she started to make her way out of the room, "I'm going to go and wash my face."

~~

They were sat in silence again, picking at the food that they had ordered. Roxanne had managed to eat some of hers, but Lily's was still on her plate, being stabbed slowly by Lily's fork.

Lily gave a sigh as she dropped the fork to the table.

"I'm sorry Roxanne." Lily stated looking up at her apologetically. "I thought that I could do this, but, I can't."

"I'll get the check, we can go." Roxanne said, about to signal for the waiter to come over, but Lily stopped her.

"No, stay and finish your food. I'm going to go home. I need to see my mum and dad."

Lily stood up as Roxanne nodded, not having a chance to do anything else. Lily pulled a few Galleons out of her purse and placed them on the table, before she moved over to Roxanne and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She said goodbye, before leaving the restaurant in a hurry.

Roxanne watched her sadly, before looking back down at her half eaten food. She didn't want it, she wasn't hungry.

"Would you like some more wine, Miss Weasley?"

Roxanne looked up at the waiter, who was holding a bottle of wine and gave a small nod at him. She thanked him as he filled up her glass and walked away from her table. Drinking probably wasn't the best option right now, but she wanted something else to think about. She understood why Albus would turn to drink, it was good at numbing the pain, good at numbing the irrational and terrible thoughts that were running through her head.

She was halfway through the glass when she spotted Jason across the other side of the room, he was sitting with his back to her and across from a woman. Her heart seemed to beat faster and jealousy filled her as she watched him intently. Her eyes scanned over the back of him, he looked tense, she could tell by the way that he was sitting and he seemed to be in a heated discussion with the older woman he was sitting with. They both seemed oblivious to the other people around them as they hissed at each other.

Roxanne asked a passing waiter for the bill, wanting to leave the restaurant, especially if Jason seemed to be on a date with someone. She didn't know why it was bothering her so much, neither of them agreed to have anything between them, sure they had that kiss, but that was it. Roxanne had tried her hardest to avoid him, to try and not fall for him. She had no claim to him.

Roxanne paid for her meal and left a tip, before gathering her things and slipping out of the restaurant, not wanting Jason to see her. She stood outside the restaurant, her arms wrapped around herself as she looked out at the street, trying to decide what she would do now and trying to fight the urge to go back into the restaurant to say hello to Jason.

But she didn't have to do that, as Jason stormed out of the restaurant moments later and was walking angrily down the street, oblivious to those around him. Roxanne turned her head to watch him and felt herself following after him automatically, not sure why she was doing it.

She managed to catch up to him when he was about halfway down the street, she had to jog slightly to get to him. Roxanne took hold of his arm gently and he whirled around angrily to face her, wrenching his arm away from her.

"I thought I told – " he began to yell, before he stopped suddenly as he realised that it was Roxanne, his eyes widened in shock.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her gently, looking behind her before looking back at her, as though not believing that she was there.

"I was in the restaurant," Roxanne told him, wrapping her arms around herself again as she looked at him. Even though it was a warm night, she felt goose bumps spreading over her at the look on Jason's face.

"Are you on your own?" he asked her, the look of shock on his face, now mixed with slight worry.

"I was with my cousin Lily but she left halfway through. She needed to get home to see her parents to see if they had any more news about-" she stopped quickly, not wanting to say James' name, she knew she would begin crying again if she did.

Jason was watching her carefully, he seemed to realise that something had happened. "Are you alright, Roxanne?"

Roxanne shook her head as she bit her lip, wrapping her arms tighter around herself as though it would protect her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, moving closer to her and placing his hands on the tops of her arms.

Roxanne shook her head again, not trusting herself to speak.

"Jason!"

They both turned to the source of the noise and Roxanne saw the woman from earlier was walking towards them.

"Come on," Jason said, looking around them both before taking her hand, "Let's get out of here."

Roxanne nodded as she let Jason guide her down the street. "We should go to mine." Jason told her.

~~

Jason grabbed for a bottle of wine out of his fridge and two glasses, before sitting on the sofa next to Roxanne and handing her a glass. Winston had curled up beside Roxanne as soon as she had taken a seat on the sofa, nudging his face on her leg so that she would stroke him.

"Sorry, I've only got this weird stuff that Cody left here." He told her apologetically as he poured the clear liquid into both glasses and placed the bottle on the coffee table.

"Who was that at the restaurant?" Roxanne asked him quickly, she had no right to ask him that and she wasn't sure if she even wanted to know the answer. But it was distracting her enough away from what was on her own mind.

Jason took a gulp of the liquid, wincing slightly as he looked at the glass in his hand and swirled around the liquid, sucking a breath in through his teeth as he answered in a gruff voice.

"My delightful mother."

Roxanne wasn't expecting that answer.

"Oh, are you avoiding her?" Roxanne asked him, moving her hand to stroke Winston as she took a tentative sip of her own drink. The liquid was strong and burnt her throat slightly, but she enjoyed the almost vanilla taste of it.

"Something like that, we probably shouldn't have come here though. Although, she knows I won't let her in if she does turn up." Jason muttered, a darker look crossing his frowning face.

"What happened?"

"That would take a lot more time and lot more alcohol to explain. Let's just say that she's not a nice person, Roxanne. She just likes to use people to get what she wants, not caring how it'll hurt others. She's a very self involved person."

They sat in silence again, Roxanne not knowing what to say. She wanted to ask for more information, but didn't want to push him into explaining, he didn't seem to want to talk about his mother.  
Jason was the one who changed the subject.

"How are you feeling about the talent scout being around?" Jason asked her.

"Absolutely terrified, bordering panic at times." Roxanne admitted, drinking more of the alcohol, the burn of it seemed to lessen the more she drank.

"You shouldn't be, you're an amazing player."

Roxanne looked up at Jason's words, seeing the sincere look on his face. She almost scoffed, there were lots of players out there better than her, especially Jason.

"Not as good as you, you're the number one Beater in the country. It'll be piss easy for you to get the position."

"That's not the only position I want to have." He stated, winking at her. Roxanne gave a laugh at his reply, she wondered how long it would be before that side of Jason showed again. She had to admit that she was beginning to miss his suggestive remarks, not that she would ever admit that.

"That is one of the cheesiest lines I've ever heard you say." She stated and Jason gave a laugh as well.

"Oh, I have a lot more." Jason told her with a giggle. Roxanne felt her heart skip a beat at the sound of his giggling, she wanted to hear it more.

Jason downed the rest of his drink before leaning forward to grab the bottle, pouring more liquid into his empty glass, he poured more into Roxannes glass as well.

"Corny one liners aside, you're still the number one Beater in the country."

"That's a matter of opinion." Jason told her.

"Do you not think so?" Roxanne asked, it was obvious to anyone who watched the sport how great Jason was as a Beater and how great he had been throughout his career so far.

"No."

Roxanne was surprised, how could he not think that he was the best? No one matched him on the pitch, many had tried and failed to. "Who do you think is then?"

"You're the closest to number one I've seen."

Roxanne stared at him, not believing what he had said, there were other Beaters out there that were so much better than her.

"You're a lot better than me. You should be on the team." Roxanne told him, she really didn't think she was good enough to be on the England team yet, she had so much more to learn, more to practice on and skills to pick up.

"I want us both to be on the England team, that way we can be seen together and we wouldn't have to hide things." Jason admitted to her. Roxanne couldn't help but feel happy at his words, if they were both on the team, they could be seen together and wouldn't have to worry about what others would say.

"That's unlikely to happen with the way that I'm feeling," she admitted to him truthfully, she was much too distracted to have any chance of impressing the talent scouts, even if there was a slim chance of her being picked. She placed her glass down on the coffee table and leant back on the sofa, trying not to think of James, she knew that she would start crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked her tenderly, placing his own glass down and turning his body slightly so that he could look at her face on. She knew that he had been wondering why she was upset earlier, but he hadn't pressed the matter.

"My cousin James has gone missing," she admitted, trying to stop the tears from filling her eyes. "No one knows where he's gone, the Ministry is involved and the Aurors, but they haven't been able to find him."

Roxanne quickly found herself in Jason's arms, as he pulled her towards him to hug her. She wrapped her arms around him as she let her tears fall. "I'm so scared, Jason. What if he doesn't come back? What if something has happened to him?"

Jason kissed the top of her head as he held her in his arms, not sure what else to say, or how else to comfort her.

Winston gave a small whine from next to Roxanne, as though he could sense her sadness and Jason reached over to stroke him on the head.

"No one knows what to do and I feel so damn useless. I feel like I should be doing something."

"If the Ministry and Aurors are involved, there's nothing that you can do apart from being there for your family." Jason told her softly, his hand running up and down her back soothingly.

"Half of them won't talk about it, we're apparently the family that doesn't open up to each other. Albus and Lily just sit in silence, I think Albus is hoping that if he ignores it, it wouldn't have happened. Lily just looks so broken," Roxanne sniffed. "I don't know what we'd do without James."

"Tell me about him," Jason stated, his lips finding the top of her hair again and kissing her again as he shifted her slightly so that she was sitting more comfortably, pressed up against him.  
"What was he like? I only ever saw him at Hogwarts, I'd never spoken to him."

Roxanne forgot that Jason was at Hogwarts when James went there, Jason had been at Hogwarts when Roxanne had gone, but she was in her first year whilst Jason was in his last. He was only a few years older than James.

"He's hilarious." Roxanne told him, smiling as she thought about her cousin. "One of my favourite cousins by far. Every memory I have of him, he's always smiling or making others smile. I've never seen him sad, never seen him cry, he just always has this cheesy grin on his face and you know he's either done something or he's planning to do something."

"He sounds like an amazing guy," Jason said.

"He really is." Roxanne told him, feeling tears coming to her eyes again as she thought about how big an impact James had on her life. "He always had time for everyone, no matter who it was or what they wanted."

Roxanne couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt him, why anyone would take him from them. Did he owe them something? Was he taken in revenge for something? Was he leading a whole separate double life where he wasn't the James they all thought he was.

"Why have you never been signed up for the England team before?" Roxanne asked, still wrapped up in Jason's arms. She didn't want to think about James anymore, she didn't want her mind to come up with all those horrible ideas that maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought she did.

"I nearly was," Jason admitted. "I was all ready to take the medical and go over the contract a few years ago."

Roxanne pulled away from Jason and looked at him with a small confused frown. "Then why are you not already on the team?"

Jason ran a hand tenderly over Roxannes face, pushing a strand of hair from her face before he answered her. "I gave it up for my dad, he got really sick and he needed me to be there for him. He tried to convince me that I didn't need to, but I couldn't accept the position and be away from him when he needed me most. The association understood why I had to decline, they were very supportive and so were the Wasps. They knew that I needed to focus all of my time on my dad."

"Is your dad okay?" Roxanne asked him, she had seen Jason's dad a few times, either in the papers with Jason or in the stands.

Jason nodded, "Yeah, he's back to his normal strength. Thankfully, they found the cancer early enough."

"I'm sorry about your dad," Roxanne told him, reaching up to kiss him on the side of the face.

Jason smiled thankfully, "And I'm sorry about James. I hope they can find him soon."

"I hope so too."


End file.
